


Deus Ex: War Paint [English version]

by LilythArdat



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: A lot of original characters, Age Difference, Blood and Gore, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I try it in English because I want to improve myself, Multi, Nudity, Original Character(s), Past Rape/Non-con, Shameless Smut, Strong Language, Use of alcohol and drugs, Violence, What-If, a little bit of AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:55:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 236,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilythArdat/pseuds/LilythArdat
Summary: [Post Mankind Divided - good ending]November 2029.During a well-deserved and symbolic break from Task Force 29 after the events in London, Adam Jensen receives a request for help from Artair McTavish, a Prague-based hacker who contacted the Juggernaut Collective to find someone suitable for his needs.It's an assignment that could somehow bring Jensen closer to Bob Page, and a means to finally give a face to all the other Illuminati.Or perhaps it is something much more familiar in Adam's life, the intimate desire to always want to do the right thing, in a world that has an extreme need for kindness and empathy.An assignment that will push him to collaborate with a girl whose story is awfully similar to his, and with whom he will discover that he can be more than just a tool in the hands of others.Because what Adam Jensen is really looking for is a way to feel himself human again.[Adam Jensen/Fem!OriginalCharacter]
Relationships: Adam Jensen/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 65
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cyberwolf0_replicant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyberwolf0_replicant/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, ciao! I'm LilythArdat, and this is my first English story on AO3.  
> For those unfortunate readers who are thinking of giving this new version a chance, I can only say thank you. And I already apologize in advance for the possible lexical mistakes that will have escaped me during the translation, but yes, my fanfiction was born in Italian, in my native language.  
> I've always been involved in the macro-section "Videogame" and I've always had a certain predilection for the supernatural horror genre accompanied by immense introspective splits.  
> Well, now I find myself in the cyberpunk genre.
> 
> In this introduction, I'd like to specify the reason for the choice of some warnings of my fanfiction:  
> \- AU, because already in the first chapter I mention the presence of a theme dear to me, the supernatural, even if in the very first Deus Ex, the one starring JC Denton, we face some lovely aliens in a specific part of the game, so maybe AU is not so much.  
> \- SMUT, because as much as I'm the first to want to create good content that matches the world of Deus Ex, what I absolutely prefer is to let a character like Adam Jensen come to life through my words. And in a person's life, in a more or less important way, more or less frequently, there is sex.  
> Throughout the story, I will explore VERY DETAILLY what I think is Adam's most intimate and personal reflections on the topic: a man who found himself with more than 70% of his body modified by augmentations and metal, a man who, according to the initial video in Human Revolution, had sex. A man who has desires, impulses, weaknesses, needs and, as unlikely as it may seem in the context of Deus Ex, that can find part of himself, of his humanity, in the romantic and physical relationship with another person.  
> \- WHAT IF?, because the inclusion of new characters, of my own creation, automatically CHANGES a story that already exists. And this is how it must be, because otherwise their weight in the fanfiction will be insignificant. A new character makes possible new paths and new ideas to explore.  
> \- STRONG CONTENTS and VIOLENCE, because Deus Ex is already a video game that unscrupulously shows certain themes, from death, murder, segregation, abuse, and I do not spare myself in my story with the inclusion of scenes really, REALLY, horrible.  
> \- PAST RAPE/NON-CON, because in some chapters there are references to rape.
> 
> The notes, warnings and ratings are put there for a reason.  
> Constructive feedbacks are welcome but I hate fandom diatribes.
> 
> There are also very few chapters of the story that occasionally have lyrics to some songs. I'd be happy to leave you the link to the Youtube video of the song in question at the right time.  
> I'm not telling you to listen to the music while reading, it might actually be a distraction, but it's a way to share what helped me to write again after so many years of lack of inspiration.
> 
> Last note before leaving you to the actual chapter: I started writing this fanfiction in March 2018, after playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided for the first time; I read the novels Icarus Effect, Black Light, and the comic book Children's Crusade; I played the very first Deus Ex back in 2002, Human Revolution and Mankind Divided much more recently, but I don't know anything about Invisible War.  
> The second chapter of the saga, by being set twenty years after JC's story, shouldn't be particularly important for Adam Jensen's, but if there should be some mistake in the timeline let me know, maybe I'll still be in time to study and eventually make the right changes.  
> However, I tried to get the best information through Deus Ex Wiki, which is practically a godsend for us poor fanfiction writers.
> 
> In conclusion, this is a work of fiction, a praise to the beautiful universe of Deus Ex, and a praise to the beautiful character of Adam Jensen.
> 
> Have a good read and enjoy your stay.

The first time Adam Jensen set foot in the pub named Crannóg, located in the area near the river between the two districts of Čistá and Dávný, he observed the clearly emulative and picturesque environment with a hint of slight interest.

The exterior had unique details, different from the architectural style of that part of Prague, all walls of grey, white and red bricks.

Obviously, since it was a space on the ground floor of a building that didn’t seem to be inhabited on the upper levels, it lacked the typical pointed roof with pronounced and elongated edges almost to the ground. The façade was embellished with small wooden columns that were supposed to recall the raised poles typical of those prehistoric and medieval buildings. The main door was painted black, as if to give the impression that there was a simple rounded opening to be overcome, and those who were about to enter seemed on the point of being swallowed up by darkness dimly lit by the internal lights.

The name, _Crannóg_ , was legible just above the door, carved with some industrial machinery and with a graphic style reminiscent of ancient calligraphy, sinuous lines in italics that reminded him of an old television series set in Scotland that had been in fashion about ten years earlier.

Adam had a glimpse of a portion of the entrance when he stopped to let in a small group of local youths, three boys in their early twenties, wrapped in heavy jackets, who were talking to each other in a rather difficult Czech language. He had been overwhelmed for a handful of seconds by loud music but, although he wasn't particularly tight on the subject, it was easy for him to detect the slight distortion caused by a performance played and sung live.

He took his time to observe the small candle-like lanterns sizzling with electricity, hung a little higher up to attract the attention of passers-by and to give the place a semblance of intimate medieval tavern warmth.

Jensen had always associated those distant places with that particular characteristic. As a young boy, when he studied European history in high school, he found himself intrigued by the nature and the use of those inns built for wayfarers and locals, for people looking for a hot meal or a more or less comfortable bed to rest in.

He knew very well that the Crannóg was far from being classifiable in that kind of place, it had the reputation of a good quality pub that welcomed augs without any problem, yet from the outside, he couldn’t help but experience that initial impression, like a corner of the world enclosed in a distant time and place. Once inside, it was easier for him to return to the classic idea of a pub.

Although built with standard materials, decorated with modern furniture and tables and comfortable benches on which to sit in peace, the predominant colors recalled the brown of oak wood, clay and earth, typical materials of those ancient structures. The proximity of the Vltava River probably also wanted to evoke that bizarre taste for buildings so different and distant from the culture of the Czech Republic.

The place wasn't particularly big, certainly not like the Red Queen, but it could boast of a large, long counter to the left of the door from which four bartenders served the customers, decidedly numerous for a simple Tuesday evening in mid-November. Thanks to what he had read outside on a blackboard posted next to the front door, Jensen could assume that cheap booze could somehow attract many patrons.

However, he had to admit to himself that the place had become quite renowned since it opened about six months before he moved to Prague. For obvious reasons he had never bothered to go there for a drink, it wasn’t a pub on the street on his way home from work, and the nearest subway wasn’t one of his usual daily routes.

Adam looked around, the dark shields covered his artificial eyes, making his modified _nature_ well intuitable. However, he wasn’t the only augmented man in there, he noted with a certain subtle relief: even one of the bartenders had a mechanical hand, thanks to which he seemed particularly inclined to prepare rather elaborate cocktails and entertain customers with a blatantly exhibitionistic familiarity.

A red robotic arm raised in a wave of greeting made him see Vaclav beyond a uniform group of young university students, who walked away in the direction of a table placed near to a sort of stage on the innermost side of the pub, in front of the entrance and at the other end of the long counter.

Jensen reached Koller with a calm step, establishing that he had spent even too much time studying that new place; it was a hard habit to die, which in many circumstances had practically saved his life. He hoped that in that particular context there was no need to think about it, that latent form of paranoia that punctually attacked him when he was in similar situations.

«Hey, Jensen. Did you have trouble getting here?», Koller asked in his usual cheerful tone, greeting him with a quick pat on the nearest arm.

«Not at all», he replied in an imperturbable voice.

Vaclav always had that typical expression of those who didn't get enough rest, with a flash in his warm brown eyes and sometimes hidden by dark curls that could be associated with excessive use of caffeine or energy drinks.

After the events of a month earlier, Jensen had believed that the doctor would take some time to develop some healthier habits, and perhaps even more appropriate for the kind of work he was doing in the Time Machine lab, but it hadn't been that way.

Not that Adam had any intention of expressing his perplexity about it: he wasn’t yet particularly familiar with Vaclav and, to tell the truth, he had the vague feeling that his stay in Prague wouldn’t last long.

The young man quickly looked around, bowing his face to the other. He squeezed his shoulders covered by the grey jacket stained somewhere on the sleeves and left open on his belly covered by a red checkered shirt, black trousers and classic sneakers to complete his usual outfit.

«You know, Jensen. I have to say, it struck me as odd that you were interested in what kind of clubs I frequented. Actually, I thought it was strange that you asked me about the owner of this place», Koller began with a loud enough voice to be heard by him, but well contained so as not to attract the attention of any possible prying ears. «I mean, you gave me the impression that _you_ already knew... Well, I... That I used to spend several evenings off in here...»

Adam raised an eyebrow, pretending to be circumspect. It was quite obvious that his doctor didn’t feel particularly comfortable with the idea that he might have been _allegedly_ spied on, but in his defense, Jensen had nothing to do with that part of the matter. He had simply adapted himself to the situation, as he used to do that part of his undercover job.

«I understand your concerns», he simply said.

The agent had been contacted by the Juggernaut Collective, by Janus _in person,_ more or less, to respond to a request for _help_ from a person living there in Prague. To be precise, it was from the manager of that local.

Accepting that assignment, unusual though it was, seemed to have a certain importance in the _eyes_ of Janus, who had taken care to find the perfect connection via Vaclav Koller, who had turned out to be a regular customer at the pub.

«Uhm», did the doctor, uncertain. He turned his eyes for a moment to the rest of the room, rocking on the wooden stool on the smaller and sheltered side of the counter, clutching his shoulders again. «Sooo… Why are we here?»

« _You_ are here to have a drink, I suppose. _I_ am here to do the same, but I think I'll take a seat at a table. This part of the bar is too crowded, for my taste», replied the agent, watching the customers nearby.

Koller slipped a quick innocent smile, nodding before he even started to respond to Adam's words that had so much of the aftertaste of " _I want to liquidate you as quickly as possible because I have to do super-secret things._ "

Or at least, he imagined that behind Adam Jensen's presence at Crannóg there were far more important reasons than wanting to stay in a club he had never set foot in. He couldn’t say, however, whether he wanted to be a little surer of that eventuality or whether he preferred to maintain a dutiful ignorance of his _patient_ 's, more or less, lawful activities. Because it was pretty _obvious_ Adam wasn't just an Interpol agent.

«Oh... Well, uh... Actually, when I texted Artair McTavish, the owner, he asked me to stay to talk to me», Vaclav added with a gesture of disregard.

Jensen scrutinized him for a long time, a faint nod that could be understood as a gesture of dissent. Yet he exhaled visibly and took his place on the stool directly next to the doctor's one, forcing him to leave to the agent some space on that more sheltered and angular part of the counter.

«And for what reason?», the agent asked, as the request seemed rather imprecise and vague.

«Well... You know better than I do what I do, other than the bookstore», Koller replied, showing himself to be serious, perhaps in an attempt to appear reassuring and professional. With poor results, actually. «Perhaps he needs a consultation about augmentations.»

«Uhm.» It was Adam's turn to mumble in a doubtful tone, a verse that contained a simple and caustic thought.

_I don't like it. I don't like it at all. And feeling cornered is the last thing I need right now._

«Can we... _Can I_ reach now this Artair...?», he continued, implying that he couldn't remember his last name. And by making it clear that he was still of the opinion that he would talk to the pub owner alone.

The boy squeezed his shoulders with a relaxed expression. «McTavish. He's Scottish», the young man said. «I know he had a pressing problem to solve in his office. To apologize for the wait, we can order anything to drink for free.»

Koller lifted his cocktail glass, almost completely empty, except for a little ice and lavender-colored liquid on the bottom. Adam raised an eyebrow visible from above the shield below.

«Really?», the agent said, skeptical. Not for the possibility of free drinks, but rather for the absurd prospect of having to wait for some time.

Why _the hell_ was he in that place? Could he really be so willing to give up the pleasure of being home on a night off and show up like a little soldier to Janus' slightest request?

«It'll only be a matter of minutes now. Actually, I arrived half an hour early. I love this place. I'm sure Artair's already been informed of your presence and probably he's wrapping up his business.»

Jensen let slip a brief verse of exasperation, raising a hand to the nearest bartender, a young guy who seemed to have kept an eye on them to be immediately ready to serve them. The agent ordered a glass of whisky, left in front of him within moments. Vaclav, judging by his words, ordered a third round of what he had already drunk, something too particular and sweet for the older man's palate.

If he really had to wait an imprecise amount of time — in all honesty, he had set himself to wait no more than half an hour — he might as well cheer his thoughts with a little alcohol. He desperately needed to keep his mind empty when he was allowed to dedicate some unfortunate time to himself.

After what had happened the previous month, just two weeks after returning from the events in London, he had mostly done office work under the nerve-wracking directives of MacReady. And after days of written and verbal reports, more or less useful briefings, he had been given a few days of well-deserved vacation — to spend in Prague anyway, because he never knew if he would need to return to duty immediately.

Unlike Adam, Miller had taken a long vacation. There were rumors that he was willing to resign from Task Force 29. Or maybe he was just homesick and wanted to go to Australia for a while.

It wasn't such a hidden possibility. Jim had risked his life because of the Orchid and was trying to put back together with those parts of himself that Adam had just laid his eyes on when he broke into his apartment. When he'd poked around in his personal life. When he had found out that Jim Miller was a good man, someone that the agent could trust. Someone who deserved to know the truth.

Yet Jensen had never visited his boss after the events in London. It would have been difficult to hide his involvement in the Collective from him, it would have been complicated to face and overcome the fear that would have resulted from the mere hypothesis of informing Miller of those machinations and power games in which the director had ended up embroiled.

Miller deserved to know how much his life had been endangered by his direct superior, Joseph Manderley, but Adam found far more excuses to try to keep him away from that reality, from those conspiracies, from that rot.

Jim still had a family to come home to, a family that loved him, even if he might think otherwise. Adam could keep his boss from getting involved in situations like that again. Maybe he'd just warn him without exposing himself too much. A request for a trust that Miller would surely have accepted, because it was Jensen that thwarted Marchenko's threat and saved his life by letting him drink the serum against the Orchid.

Jensen smiled briefly between himself, amazed that Koller no longer showed such interest in chatting with him. The doctor was surprisingly quiet. He gave him a quick glance from beyond the shields, a faint nod that the boy didn’t even notice.

He found him intent on observing the back of the room, in the direction of the stage at the other end of the counter, with kidnapped expression. He followed the same visual direction to understand why the young man was so interested in those who were performing on that slightly raised level.

The low lights all over the place, a great gimmick for metaphorically separating the pub areas, let the well-lit ones facing the small stage do a great job: it was that detail that made Jensen notice two people on top of it.

A fairly grown-up man, probably in his fifties, dressed in light-colored jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt, his graying hair cut very short, was just bent over the electronic keyboard, his hands skillfully sliding to spread the last notes of a song that had just ended.

Bent over a loudspeaker near the side edge, intent on carefully untangling a rather thick wire, there was instead a girl. Though she had her back to the rest of the room slightly, it was easy to guess her sex because of her straight, hip-length hair, colored in bright violet, and the clothes she was wearing, made up of what appeared to be a white lingerie dress with black and gold details, with a pair of garter belts to which dark pantyhose was hooked and comfortable boots on her feet.

As soon as the girl got up from her previous position, Adam saw a light walnut classic guitar in her hands.

For a first moment, observing her uncovered arms together with other exposed portions of the skin, the agent mistook her for an augmented person. What was decorating her epidermis instead was a variety of tattoos, all made with black ink. Despite the distance, he could observe doodles, specific designs and written words; she also had a tattoo on her face, beyond the outer corner of her left eye, from her temple to her cheekbone, more than two inches large.

The girl turned her back again, quickly tying up her purple hair in a high ponytail, letting her musical instrument hang in front of her with the strap over her shoulder. Thanks to that movement, Adam noticed other much larger and more elaborate tattoos on the female back. And the lower and back edge of the sheath dress stretched so much that she risked to let see to everyone the roundness of her high and firm buttocks.

He wasn't at all surprised to see such a tattooed person, even though he could really count on one hand all the girls he saw personally with such a large and massive number of underskin designs. And he wasn't at all surprised that there in Prague, although it was about 52 **°** F outside the club, a young girl was dressed in that very revealing outfit — to tell the truth, inside the Crannóg there was at least twice the temperature.

By pure chance he took another look at Koller, finding him staring at the two artists. Or maybe just staring at one of them, to be honest.

«So, you've been here more than half an hour, eh», commented the agent, the look hidden by the shields.

«Huh? What?», Vaclav initially replied, looking at him, surprised by that sudden request. «Ah, yes, I told you. I arrived early.»

The man nodded quickly, warming his throat with a long sip of whisky and a sly little smile. «And it has nothing to do with that girl?»

«What? What girl?», the doctor continued with a rekindled tone.

Adam sneered, shaking his head in a nod of dissent. He didn't think it possible that Vaclav showed interest in _anything_ other than his workshop or his bookshop. This actually hinted at how little he knew him and how genuinely uncertain he was about changing their relationship sooner or later.

But was it really worth thinking about doing that with Koller? To look in him for someone to spend time with? What if it had put him in more danger than the young man had already done with the Dvali family?

Koller showed his best innocent expression, aware that he couldn’t better decipher the hidden look of the other. «Well, we might as well enjoy the show while we wait, right?»

«Definitely», Jensen made fun of him, finishing his first order.

His Sentinel System had already been set up to turn off the very slight numbness given to him by the alcohol, making him decide for a second round, immediately served with the timeliness of excellent service. Perhaps he might consider going to Crannóg for a few more drinks in the future.

A couple of noises coming from the stage caught Adam’s attention again, making him distractedly observe the fifty-year-old man trying the keyboard to adjust the volume. The girl was also arranging the strings on the acoustic guitar, but with strangely quieter methods. The duo took a quick look, followed by a nod of mutual agreement.

There must have been some singular technical problem, something that Jensen's untrained ear hadn't detected, because the young girl and the keyboard player seemed about to start playing again.

The girl took her place on a centrally placed stool, lowering the microphone a little closer to her lips.

From that angle, Adam could look better at her face, lightly made up over her eyes with black eyeliner and mascara, and on her lips with a delicate layer of crimson lipstick. She had an incredibly childish face, she seemed to be quite too young to _show_ that lived-in, contemptuous air.

The beginning of the song spread in the room with the instrument played by the girl, melodious notes that immediately attracted the attention of the rest of the pub. Paradoxically, even the noise caused by the work of the bartenders seemed to fade, or perhaps the sound system, that had given an initial problem to the performance, returned to full operation.

When the singer's voice spread through the air, Adam understood why so much attention was paid to her.

**_He_ ** _eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak_  
 _I've been locked inside your[heart-shaped box](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEZo_3AQZ2Y) for weeks_  
 _I've been drawn into your magnetar, pit trap_  
 _I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black_

Her tone was slightly rough, perhaps deliberately dragged, but she was able to show the evocative details of the words well, being clearer during what was supposed to be the refrain.

_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice_   
_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice_   
_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice, yeah, your advice, yeah_

Adam took a moment to look at his doctor's expression, finding him absorbed and kidnapped by the performance. He had to admit to himself at least that he was pleasantly impressed too.

He couldn't say whether there was a certain skill in the technique and the way the duo sounded, Jensen had never been a big fan of music, but a part of himself simply appreciated that moment.

He had never developed a real interest in that art form, most of the songs he had listened to and had a certain memory of were all contained in the years he had lived with his parents, with genres that were quite normal and of common appreciation.

There had been another time in his life when he found himself listening more often to classical melodies. Megan had also managed to persuade him to go to some play in Detroit.

Jensen shook his head in a nod, taking a long sip of whiskey.

_Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet_   
_Cut myself on angel's hair and baby's breath_   
_Broken hymen of your Highness, I'm left back_   
_Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back_

He hadn't noticed it right away but some of the customers had started swaying their heads to the rhythm, as if they were about to dance. Although the song wasn't particularly lively, there was something that seemed to stir their spirits.

It was in the last part of the performance that Jensen returned to stare at the girl for a few moments.

She seemed to have held a guitar in her hands since she was a child, moving with it with certain care, squeezing herself in the shoulders, sliding a strap of the little white dress over her shoulder and sharpening the soft curves on the generous neckline of her breasts, her purple hair that, despite being raised on the back of her neck, framed her face with several locks, attached to the skin for a light layer of sweat. And lastly, her eyes, slightly unclosed but properly lit to show their blue glow, a warm and clear blue like the summer sky, caressed the room with inflexible dexterity.

She was a beautiful girl, she was probably also aware of that, but something in her paradoxically cheeky appearance, besides the incredible presence of tattoos, made her distant and far away, like an animal locked in a cage that had autonomously decided not to fascinate anyone anymore, if not with her simple condition of imprisonment.

What was that about? Incredible skill at _selling herself_ to the public? An innate ability to draw attention to her, through that appearance of a _small tiger_ that grew up in captivity?

Adam thought that a little bit all artists were like that, able to transform themselves into exactly what others wanted to see. A rather harsh and unkind, _very_ unkind opinion, but it was work, after all, and he himself had understood only with time how willing he was being to let himself be _bought in_ _turn_.

He looked at the girl and noticed other details he hadn't identified before, like the lower edge of the little dress that left visible a winking portion of firm thighs outlined by the lines of the integrated garter belts. What he mistook for an extension of the dark pantyhose were instead other tattoos, other squiggles of black ink.

For a moment, Adam wondered how many more drawings that young girl had on her body. And he wondered why she went so far in satisfying such a whim. Why changing her skin so much, why choosing to make herself so different in the eyes of others?

Perhaps there was a fund of regret in his thoughts, something that could relate to his condition as an augmented person. The drama of not having chosen, of not having a choice. And yet, how many times did he have to repeat that, in the end, all of that had served a purpose?

_But at what price?_

_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice_   
_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice_   
_Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint_   
_Forever in debt to your priceless advice, yeah, your advice, yeah, your advice_   
_Yeah, your advice_

When the song ended, a crescendo of applause brought everyone back to a state of alert euphoria, as if they felt the need to vent that dormant energy they had barely held back.

Jensen sensed the movement of the nearest bartender without even being totally facing him; he looked at him just before seeing the man wave his hand towards the door to Koller's left. Adam stood up from the stool in a fluid movement, startling Vaclav a bit, who hadn’t noticed the gesture of the pub employee.

As the young man made his way for the back of the pub, the duo on stage was about to start another song. The agent turned his head slightly to notice his doctor taking a long look at the musicians, a slightly exultant expression on his face — perhaps from the first notes he had already recognized which lyric they would play.

An expression that turned into a veil of embarrassment when the boy realized he was watched in turn, as the agent was reserving for him his typical doubtful frown. Vaclav overcame Jensen with quick steps, pretending carelessness and giving the man the occasion to show a quick sly sneer.

They both passed through a short corridor, a door at the end of it with the word " _exit_ " at the top, one on the right indicating the presence of a bathroom for employees, and one on the left half-open that gave a glimpse of the inside of a small administrative office.

Koller knocked with his red hand, opening the door better and crossing it without waiting for an actual answer.

Artair McTavish was a good-looking man, in his forties, with typical northern European features. The honey-colored hair cut short accentuated the angularity of the face, a slight layer of beard a little darker delimited instead the line of the jaw. The eyes were brown, warm and intense, under which there were some rather evident dark circles.

Physically he wasn’t particularly imposing, rather average, dressed in jeans and sweatshirt, perhaps with a slight hint of muscle under his clothes. He probably used to do some simple daily physical activity to maintain his ideal weight-shape.

«Forgive the wait, pub business, that I tried to resolve as soon as possible», he began, moving away from the only table there. «I am Artair McTavish, owner of this place. It is a pleasure to have you here.»

He moved quietly up to Koller reserving a gentle pat on the shoulder, a cordial greeting in a classic gesture that indicated a minimum of confidence.

«Vaclav, right?», he asked anyway just in case, turning to Adam with an outstretched hand.

Jensen wasn’t accustomed to such spontaneity but responded to the hold quickly, taking great care in the movement of his carbon palm.

«Adam Jensen», he replied without adding more.

The man took a quick look at the agent, peering at him for a few moments before nodding. «I'm sorry if I was forced to draw the attention of... _Some people_ to find someone trustworthy, but this is a special situation.»

The ex-SWAT immediately understood the obvious reference to the Collective, crossing his arms to his chest as he glanced at Vaclav, wondering if it was really wise to let the doctor sensing his involvement in the Juggernauts.

Perhaps McTavish understood his grievance in so openly stating names and details, accepting that brief silence as a very obvious verbal response. He waited, however, until the man who had been pointed out to him by the Collective was willing to let him continue.

«Go on», Jensen urged him with a quick nod of the carbon hand.

Artair showed a serious expression, nodding again, only to smile just in the direction of the younger man. «Straight to the point, huh? All right.»

He moved around the room to reach the coat hanging on the wall, taking out from the pocket a device to insert in the small laptop on the table.

That studio, however small, housed everything needed to be useful and informal; in addition to the central desk, there were a couple of filing cabinets and shelves along the wall to the left of the door and behind the work table and ergonomic chair. A professional backpack had been carefully placed on a two-seater black leather sofa on the right side. The coat rack was located just next to the sofa, to which was attached a black imitation leather jacket and a grey wool scarf. It was easy to guess that these two items of clothing belonged to a woman.

In the way he moved in front of the two augs to go around the desk, Artair unwittingly drew Jensen's attention from studying the small room.

«I'm known in the IT world as BlueDevil», said McTavish in a very careless and calm tone.

At those words, Adam arched his eyebrows, surprised.

It was _highly_ unlikely to be in the same room with the hacker who had _allegedly_ disclosed valuable information on various clandestine trades, especially between America and Western Europe, and who had attacked various organizations not so much more appreciated in the United Kingdom.

To tell the truth, he had always believed that the hacker BlueDevil was part of the Collective but something in the way Jensen had been contacted by Janus suggested something else entirely. Perhaps, just like _another_ hacker he knew, McTavish was acting on his own.

«One moment... BlueDevil?» the agent asked.

The man took a long, amused but careful look at him. «Yes, I know. They say I should be much older.»

«Actually, BlueDevil was thought to be a woman», corrected Vaclav, by getting close to the computer to look at the screen.

Artair smiled back, nodding once more. «Yes, I'm aware of that too.»

He typed in a password the moment it was requested and the contents of the device were finally exposed to the eyes of the two augs.

A series of tabs opened on various interfaces, texts, chemical and numerical formulas with a decidedly curious look and not entirely clear meaning.

Jensen had a vague idea of what those files were, in his recent activities he had often come into contact with those kinds of documents, both personal and belonging to other individuals.

«What's this about?», he asked anyway, quickly flipping through the pages written in digital format.

Koller looked at the owner of Crannóg with grainy eyes, only to return to the screen with a shocked expression.

«But it's not possible», the boy said, the incredulous tone of voice.

The agent stared at Vaclav for a moment, amazed to hear him make such an uncertain comment. He straightened up just long enough to allow the younger man to shift his attention to tables, charts and medical reports, files of which Jensen understood very little for obvious reasons.

«It can't be... Where did you get that from?», the doctor asked, standing up in a jiffy to look directly at the other man.

Artair let himself go with a long sigh, nodding his head at the laptop. «That's pretty personal information.»

The young man imperceptibly denied to that answer, not because he disagreed with the confidentiality of the owner of the club — in fact, it was in the least — but because it was something really _big_. Something he knew only from _hearsay_.

«Really? Someone you know passed you... _This_?», Koller tried again, the expression indicating an inordinate curiosity.

McTavish remained silent for a few seconds, watching both his guests. He squeezed his arms around his chest, starting to move to the back of the table to take his place in the professional chair. He rocked briefly on his wheels in a vague semi-circle, exhaling shortly before speaking.

«Someone I knew. I might talk about two people, in fact», he added cautiously, observing the two augs. «I knew _one_ better than the _other..._ »

«Who are they?», asked Adam this time, taking a slightly more careful stance.

Crossing his arms to his chest could indicate closure but it also wanted to be a way to entice his interlocutor to continue without omitting anything. Whatever the assignment was, starting it with secrets left unexpressed wasn’t the best way to go about it.

«It doesn't matter», replied Artair, denying it again.

«And instead it may be, based on what that device contains», the agent said.

Vaclav moved to the side of the ex-SWAT, still looking to the hacker. «These are data from a top-secret project of which some trace was found about a decade ago, rumors of an experimental program on the... On human evolution, so to speak.»

Artair leaned better against the back of the chair, making it creak slightly, even him with his arms suddenly crossed over his chest. «It was called the Hymeneal Plan. Something completely different from the evolution proposed by the augmentations. Something for which many lives were broken, tortured, used and exploited.»

«And what was this project based on? How was it different from augmentations?», asked Jensen, the attentive and vigilant expression.

A wake-up call had sounded in his mind. The memory of when he discovered two years before about White Elix, about his adoption, about Michelle Walters, stood out sharply in the exact center of his chest, giving him a vague feeling of anxiety. So many thoughts that added to those he was facing daily.

The owner of the pub bent his face a little, moving one hand to point to the computer. «The organization that was in charge of this experimental program was dismantled between 2012 and 2013. I don't know if the name Horus Field can tell you anything», he added, introducing a brief pause to observe the two guests.

Adam denied imperceptibly, almost relieved that it wasn’t a name known to him. Vaclav also made it clear that he didn't know the organization, but he quickly glanced at Artair and then went back to the digital documents he kept flipping through.

«In any case», the hacker resumed, «all their work has been destroyed or deleted, although this specific project has had several start-ups at other companies around the world, kept more or less latent until the appearance of the very first augmentations, just over twenty years ago. Thanks to the technologies and discoveries made during the nineties, changes have been made in... In a more careful reinterpretation of what they set out to do.»

Jensen maintained a stoic and imperturbable composure, eyes covered by shields that made his expression much more indecipherable. Yet he knew how his stomach was twisting at the prospect that he was suddenly encountering something he actually knew.

Pure chance, or had Janus once again dug into the past of the agent? As that private detective did two years earlier, Brent Radford, finding this information would have been just as easy for Janus.

Artair continued to clarify his explanations, giving other, slightly more personal details. «The files on the device were found two years ago in England, about five months before the Aug Incident, and it was because of those files that I had to flee my country. For a long time, I've been trying to figure out how to move and act, and it was during my work on the network that I learned that Page Industries are interested in exhuming the Hymeneal Plan.»

Jensen was decidedly interested in hearing the name of the large multinational conglomerate, knowing that the assignment could really serve his purpose.

«And what did this Hymeneal Plan provide for?», he asked again.

It was Koller who answered, taking a seat on the table, sitting on it with a small leap and carrying the computer on his lap. He turned to his side so as not to completely turn his back to McTavish, who gave him a skeptical look at him for all that demonstration of confidence.

«From what I see and what I remember when it was mentioned off the record», the doctor began, «this project has older foundations than augmentations, something that was being worked on to improve life's capabilities. But it has practically undergone a change of intent over time.»

Vaclav shook his head, clearing his voice. He took a long look at the two men, hesitating just a moment before resuming where he had left off.

«It was based on the study of stem cells, DNA and genetic change within the... Within the maternal uterus.»

Adam's expression totally addressed to him made him shake his head in an uncertain nod.

«I don't think I ever told you this, Jensen, but I was born with arms deformities. My condition, at that time, made me consider a lot of suggestions, even though I specialized in augmentations.»

Adam stared at him for a moment, putting pieces of the eclectic puzzle that was Vaclav Koller back in _place._ Keeping his face neutral through the presence of the shields, he couldn't help but wonder again if there was some correlation between White Elix and Horus Field.

«It was something that had been researched and studied since 1970», McTavish added with a distant expression, shaking his head to return to the _present_. «They conducted experiments on fetuses, infants and children to create and develop human evolution more rapidly. They forced adults to carry out pregnancies to give birth to improved human beings», he continued in a serious tone, resting his elbows on his desk and placing his hands intertwined in front of his lips. «What I have recently discovered leads me to believe that someone in Page Industries is interested in taking over the program, and my intuition suggests that their purpose is to be able to control a similar technology, with the improvements and capabilities they have now.»

The agent nodded in response, taking a quick look at the back of the laptop. «And what did you have in mind about that?»

Artair stared at him for a moment, his brown eyes became darker and his hands loosened their grip just to point the agent with a pair of fingers. «Mr. Jensen...»

«Adam», he stated, implying a preference to be called by name.

The hacker showed himself surprised for a second by that sudden colloquial willingness, but he welcomed it eagerly.

«Adam», he repeated in reply, «my request is as follows: theoretically, _this_ should be the only existing version of the Hymeneal Plan, but my research led me to believe that there may be a possible copy of the project in a militarized structure in Russia.»

Vaclav lifted his head off the screen, intrigued. He settled better on the desk, still sitting on it. «And that's bad news, right?»

McTavish made a quick grimace, loosening the grip of his arms and placing both hands on the table.

«It's not a sure thing, that's the problem. I'm not sure», he admitted in a doubtful voice, showing all his disappointment. «Mine is more a simple scruple, because in these two years my work has focused on finding any connection with the Hymeneal Plan. Up to now, my IT actions have been enough to prevent other possible uncertainties, because I had to search in safer areas. Areas of the network where I can move very well.»

The man paused briefly, taking a look at the other two.

Adam already knew that approach, it was very similar to the Rippers' method. Maybe BlueDevil was more inclined to exploit his skills in that kind of activity: this could explain why he wasn’t an IT operative of the Collective.

«My luck, or misfortune, depending on how you look at it», he added, bowing his head in a tired gesture, «is that this hypothetical second copy is under a cover name, something that others have failed to find because they don't know what to look for. But it could also be a false lead, something that is actually the simple façade of the project. Or even a _trap_ to deceive those who are trying to sneak this information, like me.»

Jensen took a moment to calmly weigh up the reflections that were arising in his mind, beginning to construct more precise details and questions to be asked to try to understand better that situation.

However, as extremely unlikely as it all was, from being in the presence of a well-known hacker to seeing the ghost of the experiments that, as far as he knew, he had undergone as a child — and of which he had no memory at all — the persistent voice of conscience suggested that he could also give some of his time to that task.

Time in an imprecise moment in the near future: Artair had hinted at Russia, a place definitely vast and not exactly around the corner.

«So, your goal is that there are no other copies of this data in circulation other than yours?», Adam asked to be absolutely sure what he was supposed to be dealing with.

«That's right, that's why I requested someone with your _skills_ », admitted the hacker, nodding.

«And then what? What would you want to do about the project?», the ex-SWAT asked again, sensing that there was more to know based on the physical answers he could read from the pub owner.

«Destroy it.»

The tone with which McTavish pronounced those two words made them more expressive than expected, giving them a connotation that was too intense, almost liberating for him. As if he had expelled a foreign and painful object from his body.

«What?!», Vaclav intervened, moving the computer to the table and back with his feet on the floor. «Wait, what it's in that project might still solve some of the problems of the augmented people.»

Artair nodded slightly, agreeing with the statement but ready to dismantle it. «Yes, it could, but it is a study that wouldn’t really serve the purpose. Although the idea of finding out a solution, for example, to the DDS is something absolutely desirable, the Hymeneal Plan has no basis to support improvements to those who are already augmented.»

A new pause served for making the three men even more vigilant and attentive to the rest of those words.

Another part of that absurd story led Adam's mind to what he was able to do, that he didn't need neuropozyne, to how his body had _accepted_ the augmentations, even though it had taken him two years to get used to them completely.

McTavish pointed with a wave of his hand at the laptop, his brown eyes darkened further. «The results of the Hymeneal Plan will always be unstable and too dangerous. What it's described in the final reports explains that it relied on people who were predisposed to... To human capabilities already considered quite advanced at the time.»

He turned the device towards himself, quickly searched for the file he wanted to show and then turned the screen back towards his guests, leaving a few pages of the document visible.

«The project is based on innate and genetic psychic abilities», he quickly added.

Koller showed a puzzled expression, uncertain of having really understood the meaning of those last words. «No, wait a minute. I don't think I understand...»

Adam was beginning to have a vague idea of what the hacker was referring to but his rational and logical mind considered the possibility absolutely unfounded.

«All the subjects on which the Hymeneal Plan was tested seemed to have paranormal abilities», Artair replied, nodding.

The agent and the doctor remained silent for a few moments, staring at McTavish in two different ways: Jensen, thanks to the dark shields, was inscrutable, but in his heart, he knew he was quite surprised by the fold of that information; Vaclav, instead, made no mystery of his astonishment, deciding to put all his attention on the device file, mainly on that last text just selected by BlueDevil.

«Paranormal abilities», the youngest murmured in an uncertain voice, nodding shortly afterward. «Gee, it looks like it's true...»

The hacker shook his head in an amused nod, though his eyes showed a shade of sadness.

«Regardless of whether or not you believe these things, the possibility that, if we are looking for a logical explanation, those subjects had unlocked a way to exploit their brains one hundred percent, or whether it was really particular _powers_ typical of the collective imagination, of folklore, my request remains unchanged. I need someone I can trust, someone who can break into that complex to check that there is no other copy of the project. Someone who has considerable fighting skills, if necessary, although it would be more appropriate to keep a low profile.»

Adam decided to have his say, partly approving the man's intent. There was something wrong with the whole story, parts of the tale that were missing and that Artair was deliberately omitting. The man was definitely hiding a secret that had something to do with the Hymeneal Plan.

«These are details that we can discuss later, especially since you mentioned Russia, and you will understand that it will take time to organize something like a... Fieldwork», Jensen said, taking care not to leave much to Koller.

He was still thinking of keeping the doctor in the dark about his involvement with The Collective. The less he knew, the better for him. For Vaclav. And for Adam, too.

«But there's one question that you haven't answered yet», the agent took up again, «and if your request stems from a simple feeling of scruple, you'll understand that I'm currently driven by the same motivation. Or if you like, call it skepticism. Or caution.»

Artair gave him a long look, sighing. «I'm listening.»

Jensen took just a moment to probe the man’s physical responses with his social enhancer, noting a sincere predisposition to tell the truth, although the topic seemed to upset him quite a bit.

«Who did you get the project data from? Why are you so interested in the Hymeneal Plan?», he finally asked, staring at the man carefully. «Who was involved in those experiments?»

McTavish nodded a couple of times in a weak, slow gesture, another long sigh rippled his lips before getting up from the chair. A brief silence that completely encapsulated his state of mind, remaining on the other side of the desk, like if to shield his feelings beyond that simple barrier.

«My sister Sheena and her husband Ciaran. They weren't really married, but I know they called themselves a family anyway. They had a daughter. They all died after escaping from the Horus Field lab eight years ago.»

Koller showed a sympathetic expression. «But if they died eight years ago, how... You said earlier you retrieved the Hymeneal Plan files only two years ago, in 2027.»

«And I confirm it», replied Artair, «but after their death, for a very long time, I have searched for what, or rather _who_ had really killed them.»

The man paused again, crossing his arms to his chest and leaning on the table with one of his two legs, his brown eyes obscured by obvious feelings of sadness.

«I don't want anyone else to end up like them. I lost contact with my sister in late 2005, when she was nineteen. She met Ciaran in 2002, I think. At the time, I didn't realize they were dating, I wasn't particularly interested in my sister's love life», he added with a faint smile to lift the corners of his lips. «He, Ciaran... Well... He was the one with special skills. I don't know how and with what intensity, but he was the one... Well...»

Vaclav frowned, puzzled. When he seemed to understand, he let slip a poorly weighted comment. «Oh, he was the one with the paranormal powers.»

Adam took a long, silent look at him, finding the phrase a bit rash even by his standards. «What exactly happened to your sister and her husband?»

Not that he made an effort himself, showing sensitivity and kindness.

McTavish squeezed his shoulders, looking at the agent. «Ciaran was tracked down by Horus Field and my sister wouldn't let him go alone. She got pregnant while they were being held there, perhaps forced to procreate, or perhaps, despite everything, eager for a semblance of normality, but I think the worst came just after the birth of the daughter.»

BlueDevil bent his eyes, his expression distant and sad. Another long sigh, and Jensen's C.A.S.I.E. implant gave the agent a complete picture of the hacker's emotional state.

«When I found them, they... They had tried to escape from Horus Field, or at least what was left of it. They were brutally murdered, all three of them, but on the body of my niece, who was only thirteen years old at the time, there were signs of...»

Artair needed to silence for another moment, swallowing at the memory in his mind. He moved to be in front of the desk, positioning himself a few steps away from his guests and leaning with his buttocks on the edge of the table, his arms crossed again on his chest.

«The worst was suffered by her, their daughter: they experimented on her while she was still a fetus, while she was a child. What I saw on her body, all those scars... All those wounds... All those marks...»

Jensen nodded, aware of not wanting to listen beyond those words filled with agony and sadness. It was his doctor who placed his red mechanical hand on the hacker's shoulder, showing more empathy.

«I'm sorry, Artair. I guess I can't fully understand how you felt, but now I understand why you want the data from the Hymeneal Plan to be destroyed. For what may be worth my help, I willingly put myself at your disposal», the boy said in a sensitive tone, leaving a very compassionate expression perfectly visible.

The two of them took one look at each other, turning shortly afterward to the Interpol agent. Adam nodded in response, looking towards an inaccurate spot on the floor of the small studio just before responding to the hacker's glance.

«You said the possible copy of the program is in a military facility in Russia. Where exactly? Do you have a plan of action?»

The ex-SWAT's words seemed to bring some relief to BlueDevil's expression. His tired face seemed to light up with expectation and licit euphoria, perhaps even dictated by what he was about to say.

«Not yet. What we should do now, possibly tonight, is access the digital register of the Soviet Embassy in the Bubeneč district», McTavish replied. «I have a vague trace of the military complex where the files might be located, but unfortunately in order to be sure, I have to compare them with official lists present only in the computers that the Russian government officials are equipped with. Paradoxically, the safest way to do this is through the embassy, because one of their devices was accessed by a specific person.»

«Who?», asked Koller, puzzled and fascinated by that decidedly intriguing prospect.

«Faina Mironov», continued BlueDevil, a lips corner raised in an amused nod.

Adam lifted an eyebrow, visible despite the shield. «Why is the Russian Foreign Minister in Prague?»

McTavish sneered slightly, accepting that legitimate question with a little more relaxed manner. And by gloating, by blatantly gloating. «For bureaucratic matters.»

The agent looked at him for a long time, not understanding his irony. And by wondering if all the hackers he had come into contact with had to show necessarily that swaggering, confident attitude when it came to exposing the merits of their work.

«Explain yourself.»

BlueDevil tilted his head slightly, his expression still amused to rejuvenate his features. «Let's say that I made it necessary for her to intervene unofficially in the Czech Republic, and given the events of the last period that took place here in Prague, at the Útulek Complex and in London, I guessed where she would stay for as long as she stayed.»

«Genius», commented Vaclav, enthusiastic. «How did you take advantage of the situation of augs? Because that's what it's all about, isn't it?»

«Well...», began Artair. «After the recent vote against the Human Restoration Act and the remote possibility that the Santeau group has some doubts about completing Rabi'ah, _someone_ hinted that there was some interest for the augmented people to move to east en masse. Far into the east.»

The agent found himself lifting a corner of his lips slightly, pleasantly fascinated by the idea implemented by BlueDevil: the plan, although new and sudden, seemed to be already well developed. On balance, Adam had followed tracks even with much worse premises.

«When do we start, then?», Jensen asked, while an interesting flurry of adrenaline seemed to awaken his senses completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, guys, Artair is my little guilty pleasure.  
> He's a very important character to me. With time, I hope you love him as much as I do. And if you want to put a face to him, I'd say Cullen Rutherford's the man for you. Just, in my opinion, Artair has a little darker eyes and hair, I'm referring to the physiognomy of the face (not so much of the body, BlueDevil is much less imposing.)
> 
> Regarding the second chapter, I hope that after a papyrus of more of nine thousand words nobody is in a hurry. As for the Italian version, I'll try to update it every two weeks, always on Sunday (here in Italy), but this means that I'm practically forcing myself to post once a week in total, one Sunday in English and the other in Italian. To translate I help myself with Deepl and my discreet English skills, but I still have to edit the story in Italian too.
> 
> I created a sideblog on Tumblr dedicated to this fanfiction with the intent to share material and information that I can't post in the chapters, and to warn in time of any delays in updates.  
> Here is the link [Deus Ex: War Paint](https://deusexwarpaint.tumblr.com).
> 
> And before I forget, at the beginning of each chapter I will point out if there will be scenes that deal with the sensitive issues I mentioned in the introduction: violence, death, rape and sex.  
> Did I mention I'm a damn stickler?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam probes the ground for this new task, a small, easy and clean initial job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys. How's it going? Here in Italy, we're in Phase 2 after two months of lockdown, with a few more activities back to work and a little more freedom of movement, but my countrymen decided it's a "free all" situation. Personally I think we'll have a surge of contagion again in about a week or so. I hope I'm wrong.  
> Anyway, strong language here and there ahead. Don't say bad words, guys. Only blasphemies allowed. :3

The Stará Bubeneč district once housed elegant Art Nouveau villas and manicured gardens, replaced over the years by more opulent and modern houses, in the clear advance towards a uniform and luxurious architectural style. The area was known for the presence of several foreign embassies and consulates, the only buildings that had retained their shape and appearance, one or two levels buildings with white walls and blue-grey roofs.

Since it was a district inhabited exclusively by _naturals_ , with somewhat stricter rules when possible political representatives from other countries were staying, there were more state police officers on the streets, even though there were fewer patrols at night.

During the drive, Adam, sitting next to McTavish on the passenger side of the car, had taken a few minutes of contemplative silence to observe the landscape illuminated by the street lamps.

The long-paved roads still maintained a trace of the old style, with trees confined to the sidewalks surrounded by small wrought iron fences and autumn foliage stirred by the cold wind of the Prague evening. It was all too easy to notice the accuracy with which the surrounding environment was preserved, that evident absence of dirt or rubbish that Jensen constantly saw near his home.

Even in the back of the Crannóg, it was possible to see some neglect, a few overturned garbage cans and glass shards next to broken bottles, but never on the same level as Překážka.

Jensen had mixed feelings about the district he was _forced_ to live in. All the homeless people there were like a warning for the future, the doubt that sooner or later he might end up there too. Not suffering from the rejection syndrome would have made the bite less bitter, just like he was already experiencing during the _career_ at Interpol and as an agent of the Collective, but it was a fear first felt when he returned to Detroit after Alaska, when he had passed the aug-ghetto camp destined for the augmented people in that area.

It was impossible not to dwell for a single moment on the memory of Stacks, on when he had seen him give without any second thought the last dose of neuropozyne in his possession to a young augmented girl. On that occasion, Harrison had told Jensen that she reminded him of his daughter who died in the Incident.

The agent couldn’t stop his mind from remembering the rest, everything that had happened afterward and everything Stacks had told him on his _deathbed_. He shook his head in an absorbed nod, bending his face slightly in the driver's direction.

Artair wasn’t lost in chitchat: once he had disconnected the device from his laptop, he put it in his jeans pocket and wore the jacket with the same speed. He made his way through the studio door, continuing down the corridor to the rear exit.

Getting away from the constant noise coming from the main pub hall had given Adam a genuine sense of relief.

He hadn't been bothered by the music played live, actually, he also realized that, while following BlueDevil, he recognized the song that had reached his ears in slight muffled distortion. What was it called? Was [Paranoid Android](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwZkfr4Zjg) by Radiohead? _Christ_ , that girl had a much more amazing voice than the man would ever be willing to admit personally.

Although he had felt a primal reticence about the idea of taking on a possible assignment, everything he had heard in that studio had put some eagerness on him; perfectly kept under control, of course, but he knew very well how interested he suddenly felt in the matter.

He didn’t deny the evidence at all, BlueDevil had tickled his interest and rekindled that bizarre need to throw himself into fieldwork.

Was it possible that he felt the need to get shot at so much already? To risk his life? Or maybe it was the intimate desire not to let go of the prey once it was bitten? All he had to do was hearing the name Page Industries and he was more than ready to get back to action.

Inside the car, there was still that vague smell of the pub, a faint scent of good quality alcohol and flavored drinks, but there was also a trace of a scent that Jensen hadn't smelled in an incredibly long time. It was the perfume of cinnamon, or a hygiene product that had the fragrance of cinnamon, something that reminded him of the years when he associated that olfactory trace with Christmas fairs in Detroit. A scent that reminded him of much more pleasant times, the memory of that familiar sense of warmth that made him visibly darken and turn his gaze again hidden by the shields beyond the window.

While driving, McTavish had focused on an accurate description of the area around the Russian embassy, indicating in the dashboard the presence of a portable digital reader containing data and mapping of the nearby blocks and the sewer system. The time needed to travel gave them some way to determine how to move.

«The embassy is located on a hill near Stromovka Park. Even though it is a public office, the presence of the minister may require a few more precautions. There is a special bedroom ready for important guests, but the computer you have to connect to...», explained Artair, addressing Jensen, «is on the second floor of the building, in a corridor guarded by a surveillance camera and, at this hour, by a couple of guards.» He took a short break, turning off at an intersection after making sure he could pass. «There will only be a civil servant and a few police officers at the entrance.»

Adam nodded in response to that information, studying through holographic drawing the best way to access the building. «What are my limits for the task?»

Artair showed a satisfied expression, appreciating the professionalism of the request. «Leave no trace of your passage, don't engage in any fight and possibly avoid stunting the guards.»

The hacker seemed to think of some other detail, resuming his speech shortly afterward.

«I know that a possible access route could be created in a weak point of the structure on the perimeter to the north, the one overlooking Stromovka Park, but it is better to avoid the opening of some physical breach in a wall: the presence of the minister here in Prague isn’t official, and the limits in which I'm placing you serve not to alert the Russian government.»

Jensen responded with a vague nod of consent, barely perceptible, continuing to search through the device for an access point much more suitable for the situation. «Could there be a risk that, if we were discovered tonight, someone would be alerted at the top?»

«Yes, it's possible, and it's better to avoid it», the hacker replied, nodding.

Adam stared at him for a few moments, his gaze hidden by the dark shields, at last, turned to the road lit by headlights and street lamps. «Forgive my frankness, but I have a doubt: have your actions exposed you to anyone? I'm not only referring to making the presence of a politician from another country here in the city necessary.»

BlueDevil took a quick look at him, squeezing his hands on the steering wheel in a slight uncontrolled spasm. «Before I asked Janus for assistance, I acted on my own, but this time my work won’t be enough», he said, moving a little bit on the seat, as if to find a more comfortable position. «If you're asking me if anyone knows about my activities, IT or otherwise, I can confirm that no one does. I can cover up my tracks very well.»

«But?», the Interpol agent asked, raising an eyebrow. «McTavish, there's a "but" as big as a boulder between your words.»

Artair squeezed his shoulders in a faint nod of uncertainty, mainly because he hadn’t expected to hear a sentence like the one he had just heard in such a serious tone.

«But», he began, accompanying the word with a slight nod of the «if any suspicious activity were to arise at the Russian Embassy, many analysts in their government, in addition to those in the Czech Republic, would begin to wonder what is the intent of these activities.»

Another pause seemed necessary to fully understand the meaning of those words. Jensen only had to listen to the rest to understand how much he risked putting the man who was with him in serious difficulty.

BlueDevil exhaled quickly, brown eyes fixed on the road. «Anyone with a minimum of knowledge could link them to other cyber-attacks I've been carrying out lately, even if they're well covered.»

Jensen took a long breath, taking a final in-depth look at the holographic drawing in front of him before turning the device off and putting it back in the dashboard compartment.

«I understand and agree with your request but I don't want to get caught up in something precarious and uncertain. And between you and me, I could also get involved in the immediate future, there at the embassy, but who risks more is you», the agent pointed out.

The hacker looked at him for a few moments, his expression troubled. «Are you backing out?»

«I didn't say that», the augmented man replied. «All I'm saying is that I'm obliged to take your word for it and be extremely cautious.» A brief pause made him think, leading him to add the rest of his thoughts. «Not that I assumed it would be easy. In this job it never is.»

Artair was sympathetic, taking one last look at him before stopping his car in a dimly lit parking lot next to others; not far away, to the side, there seemed to be a residential, inhabited building.

«Vaclav, excuse me, can you hand me the bag next to you?», BlueDevil asked, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning to the back of the vehicle.

Adam sighed deeply, bending slightly over his torso to observe the exchange of the backpack between the two. He took a shields-covered look at his doctor and then did the same with McTavish. It was Artair himself who stopped with the newly recovered bag in his hands, still turned on the seat.

«What?», the man asked, rather puzzled by that enigmatic expression.

Jensen raised his hand in a nod, pointing to Koller with his carbon thumb. «What _the hell_ is he doing here with us?»

Vaclav shook his head slightly in a surprised gesture, immobilizing himself for the time needed to hear the answer to that question. He began to shift his gaze from his _patient_ to the hacker as if he wanted to minimize his physical presence in the car, sitting in the back seat like a child about to go to the amusement park.

Artair did almost the same, looking first at Jensen, then Koller, then Jensen again. «I don't... Well, uh... I don't really know. He's...»

«Do I act as emotional support?», the young man proposed in a tone barely ignited by obvious enthusiasm. Adam's hidden glance brought him back with his back against the seatback. «Let's say I am the doctor... the mechanic of _our_ favorite techno-wunderkind.»

«Ours?», mumbled Adam.

«Techno-wunderkind?», McTavish made with a much more dubious expression.

Vaclav simply smiled at both of them, a pulled and uncertain smile that went out as soon as he moved into the seat to find a more comfortable position. «Well... Now that we're here...»

Artair barely held back a flick of his lips which he wanted to forcefully blossom into a low giggle, nodding as he put the bag back on his legs and turned back towards the steering wheel. «Come on, Jensen, that's an excellent argument. Now that we're here... I don't think you should abandon your doctor in the middle of nowhere when it's 44 **°** F out of the car.»

Jensen watched the two for a few more moments, a quick sigh before returning perfectly seated on the passenger seat. He unbuckled his seat belt shortly afterward, waiting at last. Tilting his head slightly, he looked at McTavish open the zipper of the backpack and pull out two multi-tools, a biocell and a HypoStim injector, and handed them to the agent.

Adam hesitated for a moment, not for real indecision or uncertainty, but to make the response to that gesture more decisive: accepting those items meant completely confirming his involvement in BlueDevil's aim.

Not that he needed to be further convinced, he needed very little to choose to be in that kind of mission, but he wanted to leave a few more minutes of thoughtful awareness to McTavish.

Once the items were stowed away, the two augmented men watched Artair rummage through the bag again to take a plastic case with a common appearance, open it and take out a flat device the size of a nut with three smooth sides and a slightly serrated one.

«This chip is what will give us access to the official lists I mentioned at Crannóg», he said, handing the little device to the agent. «I have created an intelligent program that will classify the data by level of encryption, and will show me only those that really interest me», the man concluded, observing the others.

«Will it show you?», Koller asked, curious.

McTavish simply widened the opening of the backpack a bit more, leaving to see inside it a laptop of last generation and other IT tools; the PC was definitely much more advanced than the one present at the pub and even if it wasn’t a desktop device, it was definitely suitable for that kind of work.

He turned all his attention to Adam again, pointing at him with a wave of his hand. «If it's not a problem, I'd like to connect to your infolink to track your location while you're inside the building. I may be able to guide you from a distance, but I'll let you choose if you prefer to move around on your own.»

Jensen nodded with imperturbable expression, finding the idea quite familiar. «A guide is always welcome.»

He communicated his frequency and he prepared himself to get out of the car. BlueDevil stopped him as he opened the door, touching his mechanical arm from above the black coat. Adam glanced at him, his expression questioning despite the dark shields covering his artificial eyes.

«Even though I asked you not to leave a trace, don't hesitate to defend yourself if you need to», the hacker said, a slight trace of concern in his tone of voice.

Koller leaned forward a little bit, a smile printed on his lips. «Don't worry, Artair. Jensen is a resourceful man.»

The ex-SWAT knew well what his doctor was referring to. A veil of amusement led him to lift the corner of his mouth in response to that comment, though he had to remind himself that he was deliberately going to a place he wasn’t allowed to go with only his augmentations — with the experimental ones he could still undertake even more dangerous missions.

After a quick nod of the head, the agent got out of the car with ease, took off his coat to leave it on the seat and closed the door behind him. The cold of the evening in Prague hit him with inclemency, but he had deliberately decided to continue without the ACRNM so as not to risk ruining it. Although he wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest, just a sleeveless black thermal fabric jersey, his bust was protected by Rhino Dermal Armour and, if necessary, by TITAN.

He hoped he didn't need them, but having those two mechanical augmentations gave him some confidence. Never brash or cheeky, but still useful to move with the necessary relaxation so as not to be overwhelmed by nervousness.

Though undoubtedly prepared to do that kind of work and largely benefited from the augmentations, a single detail out of place was enough to screw it all up. It was something he had experienced on his own skin, the mistakes of others that could affect everything. Or, even worse for his mind, a failure by him, a distraction, and he would have risked sending McTavish's life to the slaughter.

Although Artair had repeatedly pointed out that he had covered his tracks well, Adam was absolutely sure that he had perceived the uncertainty, the fear in the hacker's words. Yet BlueDevil had gone so far as to rely on a stranger.

There had to be something else, something Artair had kept from him, something he must have lied about. He would have thought of it in due time. Perhaps it was something he could _use_ in the future for his _war_ against the Illuminati.

Jensen took a quick look around the area before heading for the nearby road; he walked to the embassy zone, following the directions on the radar system he had set up via HUD. Based on what he saw on the holographic drawing, he knew he had to turn around a cabin cruiser to access the sewer system.

Once the manhole cover was opened beyond a small wall that bounded the small building, McTavish's voice was heard without any problems.

« _Okay, you definitely have a good memory_ », the man said, the voice pleasantly surprised. « _Once you're down there, go left and then about a mile into the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, above you, there will be an air duct that will take you to the embassy bathroom for the public on the ground floor_.»

«Copy», the ex-SWAT concluded without further ado.

The agent began to descend the ladder, immediately run over by the disgusting stench he found in those concrete and steel paths, taking care to close the passage above him.

He could never get used to how much crap there was under the city streets. Although most of the time he was lucky not to have to immerse himself in puddles or artificial rivers, when he set foot in the sewer system, he felt the overwhelming desire for a hot shower. And a double cheeseburger served by a frozen Weiss, just to get that stinging smell of piss out of his mouth.

_Or to add more shit to the bad taste I already have on my tongue._

Once the ladder was finished, so similar to the one that led directly to the secret passage to Koller's laboratory, Jensen slipped into the road indicated to him by the hacker and walked at a rapid pace until he saw the hatch of the duct above his head. All he needed was a leap and a short press on a button in the middle of it to enter the small passage.

Even in that case, the duration of the route was rather short but equally nauseating, since there were no detours of any kind, nor other outlets between the sewers and the ladies' bathroom. Those who claimed that any ladies' toilet was automatically cleaner and more perfumed definitely needed to review their experiences in this regard.

When Adam reached the hatch that marked the end of the duct, he slowed down his gait to cause as little noise as possible, activating smart vision to make sure the environment was empty.

Once out of the small steel space, he contacted the hacker. «I'm in.»

« _Great_ », Artair said in reply. « _The bathroom door opens onto a corridor which is usually quite crowded during the day, but in this case, it will be empty. Obviously don't take anything for granted and check before you can move._ »

A brief pause caused Adam to raise an eyebrow, and he found those clarifications not entirely useful, although they were made in good faith. Sometimes working in a group, or at least guided by someone even from a distance, was such exasperation.

« _You'll have to go right until you reach the waiting room next to the entrance, there may be the guard of the ground floor. The stairs are on the left, beyond the reception._ »

The agent moved all the way to the door, reactivating his smart vision and keeping the Wayfinder Radar System under control for a few moments before opening the door and slowly sliding into the half-light.

The corridor was completely dark, except for some slight light from the outside street lamps that found space between the window shutters. Several paintings hanging on the grey varnished walls indicated the choice of any interior decorator, nothing too sumptuous but not too dull: they were mostly rural landscapes, although it wasn’t easy to determine whether the Czech or Russian countryside was portrayed.

Jensen walked slightly bent forward, moving to the side more sheltered by the darkness.

The room in which McTavish was leading him appeared beyond a completely open doorway, full of chairs, benches and armchairs, alternated here and there with a few low tables, with paintings of the same style as the corridor to decorate those four walls.

The agent moved again close to the wall to reach the other door, quite protected in the dark; by the time he was just a few steps away from the wooden door left halfway open, he was able to look inside the next room.

The main atrium was lit by neon lights, filled with a few more chairs next to the large wooden and glass door, and a desk on the opposite side, almost facing Adam.

A guard, a man who must have been about the same age as Jensen, with short brown hair and light-colored eyes, was wearing the uniform of the Czech state police, a policeman's gun secured to his side; the receptionist, a younger woman, looked vaguely sleepy, or perhaps remarkably relaxed, her shoulder-length black hair perfectly straightened and a simple make-up on her face. They were both beside the table, resting with their buttocks on it but slightly facing each other.

Jensen didn't need the social enhancer to notice some attraction between the two: they were chatting about pleasant and personal topics, judging by the fun hidden in their eyes. And by the words the agent heard over the next few seconds.

«Maybe for the holidays we could try to take some time off about the same days», the cop said with a sly smile on his lips.

The girl giggled softly in response, bringing a hand to her lips. «Are you really proposing that we do something together over Christmas? You're a little overconfident.»

«Well... I'd say that's well-considered confidence. I'd like to repeat over a much longer period of hours what we did last weekend.»

The receptionist's giggle propagated again in the atrium, a little more acute and flickering, accompanied by a body movement of total availability and an evident grip of white teeth on the lower lip.

Jensen took advantage of their chatter to activate the glass-shield cloaking, just to make sure he didn't attract unwanted attention in any way. He squatted down the stairs, a couple of meters to the left of his previous position and about one meter from the other two presences.

The rest of the conversation reached his ears in a slightly muffled manner, determined to ignore any other words thanks to the weak buzzing of the cloaking in use. He didn't want to listen to any more comments, it was enough for him to perceive that emotional transport between the lines, the obvious allusion to much more pleasant activities, to want to dig himself beyond the wall of his own thoughts.

At the same time, however, he didn't want to think about how many times he had spent his winter holidays with a _specific woman_ in the warmth of their apartment. How many times during those well-deserved breaks from work he had done exactly what the policeman and the receptionist had implied, sure to be far from any prying ears.

He didn't want to take one last look at those two and find them cooing like two teenagers at their first crush. He didn't need to remind himself how much something even remotely similar was missing in his life.

His skills made him silent but equally fast, reaching the first floor in a few moments. If he didn't remember wrongly, at that level there were only management offices and workrooms for some higher-ranking employees. There was no point in staying any longer in that area of the embassy.

«I'm going on to the second floor», Jensen said through the infolink without any need to speak his words out loud.

He was about to move towards the nearby ramp, ready to reach the top floor without further delay, when his radar reported human presence right above him. He decided to ask for a simple piece of advice, stopping with one foot on the first step and his gaze concealed by the shields as he moved to check the surroundings.

«McTavish, from the first floor, besides the stairs, is there any other way around? I remember noticing a secondary route on the holographic map.»

« _Yes, if you go into the manager's office, behind a filing cabinet, you'll find an air duct that will take you upstairs. You'll exit directly onto the balcony of the bedroom where Faina Mironov is probably resting._ »

«Probably?», the agent repeated, raising an eyebrow.

« _Well... I can't know if she has insomnia_ », the other one explained. « _In any case, the balcony shutters are closed, so the important thing is not to make noise. The minister is inside the room, that's all that matters._ »

After a brief silence, Adam replied with a not very convinced " _copy_ ", walking down the corridor and moving again in the dark.

The door of the director's study was open, leaving him the possibility to observe the inside without activating the smart vision. The only filing cabinet next to the wall was the one to his right: he moved the object by a few inches so as not to cause any possible noise and opened the door of the duct at the bottom with equal calm; once he slipped into it and returned the filing cabinet to its place, he closed the grating behind him and continued along the narrow path.

The steel tunnel ran for several meters in a straight line and then bent slightly upwards in a gentle climb, that typical dry and acrid smell of dust that reached his nostrils after a few steps. When the ex-SWAT began to perceive the slight _rustling_ of the night, that pleasant sound of tree branches shook by the wind and the distant echo of some moving car, he knew he was about to reach the end of the route. Even the cold of Prague's autumn reached him before he even opened the small metal opening.

Once at the end of the line, it took a few moments to probe the surrounding environment with radar and smart vision. He was careful to get out of the duct, having to reach the floor of the terrace with a small leap.

McTavish was right: the doors of the French window were closed and the lying figure resting on the bed in that room showed no signs of waking.

«Artair, I'm on the balcony», the agent informed, looking to his left, imagining he had to advance in that direction.

« _Perfect, continue to the next balcony in a northerly direction, the ledge is big enough for you to move on it. Then continue to the next one, past it to the next window. From there, you will be able to return inside the building, precisely to the computer room used by the minister. I remind you that outside the door of that room there should be two guards and a surveillance camera._ »

Adam followed the hacker's directives while the other one was exposing them, the shifting that continued to be quiet and without renewed changes of the path. When he got close to the window, the agent took a look inside to make sure he got into the right room; he lifted the glass shutter gently and sneaked into the closed place with equal caution.

The room was dark but it was easy for him to locate the desk and computer, an ergonomic chair on the side of the screen and two small front chairs. The rest of the furniture was similar to the director's office, with bookshelves and shelves along the sides, landscape paintings hanging on the walls and some commonly used work tools, printers and binders arranged with professional care.

After a quick glance at the only closed wooden door to his left, Jensen silently approached the table, pulling the microchip provided by BlueDevil from his work trouser pocket.

«Artair, I'm in front of the laptop. It's off but the screen is still up.»

« _Perfect, even better_ », the man said in a slightly livelier tone. « _I'm preparing my laptop for data receiving, as soon as you're ready, plug the device on the right side of the keyboard and press the power button._ »

The agent didn't bother to confirm his next action, but simply once again followed the BlueDevil's directives, always keeping an eye on the door a few meters away.

The screen was activated for a few seconds in a slight luminescence, something that for a moment gave him the feeling that the laptop hadn't started properly. He had to change his mind shortly afterward, the shields dimly reflecting a blue page with more or less understandable white text — lines of code of which he recognized little or nothing, together with virtual documents he could see only the extension with they had been generated and saved.

« _Okay, I'm already getting the data. It'll take a couple of minutes._ »

McTavish's voice had been focused and attentive, suddenly less inclined to leave room for enthusiasm or what Adam had perceived just before, as a bizarre and childish amusement. Artair was probably already studying briefly those files that were easier for him to understand. Probably what he was learning from them was able to bring him back with his mind to the gravity of his situation.

Jensen wasn't sure that BlueDevil would make him fully aware of the contents of those documents. Something in his mind kept telling him that the hacker certainly had other reasons to go into that kind of activity, going so far as to involve two strangers in that whole absurd story. Even if it was Adam who was physically busy in an infiltration, Artair had also involved Vaclav, al last.

Paranoia drove him for a long time on a winding road, the dark thought that McTavish could suddenly show himself as a completely different person, someone who could hurt Koller, someone who could threaten the agent through his doctor.

Even though he had been contacted by the Collective, that doubt inexorably took hold of his thoughts, making him fearful of discovering yet another rotten truth, yet another betrayal, yet another plot.

He knew that he couldn’t talk about trust, it made no sense to ask the question on those terms, but he couldn’t believe that he really couldn’t avoid those considerations. He couldn't believe that it was easier to be led by torment, by the certainty that sooner or later, at someone's hand, he would have another knife stuck in his back.

He didn't want to give way to fear, he was perfectly aware of how wrong it was to allow such a feeling to take over. He lived every day the contempt of others on his own skin, he didn’t want to deprive himself of the beauty of being able to genuinely believe in someone. He didn't have to give that power to the trauma and pain he had experienced. He was better than all that dormant terror.

Jensen took another look at the distant door, smart vision allowed him to monitor the presence of the two-armed guards in the corridor, intent on talking to each other. His optics also allowed him to perceive the visual beam of the surveillance camera above the doorway, fixed on the two policemen chatting.

Getting out by that path was certainly not a contemplated option, he assumed that the best way to leave was to jump out of the window, or to slide down to the garden of the structure and then continue in a northerly direction towards the entrance to the nearby park. Icarus Landing would have produced lights and noise that would have been a little too disturbing for the immediate neighboring areas, risking attracting unwanted attention.

« _Finished_ », BlueDevil pronounced in a satisfied tone, his voice completely bringing the agent back to the present. « _Let me do last one thing, so that I can shut down the computer as soon as you get the microchip back. There you go, you can unplug it now._ »

The agent didn't need to make Artair repeat it twice, putting the object back in his pocket and moving silently to the wall facing the outside.

« _Well, Adam, the best thing now is..._ »

«Reach the garden through the window. I'll make sure to close the sash behind me.»

After a rapid silence, McTavish's laughter spread lightly through the mastoid bone in which the infolink was located, changing that amused verse into a lawful consensus.

Jensen did what he had anticipated just before, deciding not to let himself fall from the second floor in order not to cause possible noises and light effects, hooking where he could with his hands and sometimes finding support on the ledge.

He wasn’t particularly accustomed to using climbing skills that he had certainly never developed adequately before the augmentations, but his carbon arms and legs, together with the rest of his artificial and non-artificial muscles, made the descent quite fluid, although not particularly relaxed. And having stripped himself of his coat was also advantageous in that context, as he would have risked getting stuck at the slightest overhang not promptly avoided.

When his boots touched the gravel surrounding the building, he bent down for a few moments to check that no one was around, flattening himself against the wall to stay hidden in the dark.

The night air in Prague was much colder than usual, the approach of December had already brought several storms in the Czech capital and a couple of snowfalls on high altitudes. The presence of a green area so close to the city made the neighborhood much wetter, easily carrying the scent of native vegetation to his nostrils. The Vltava River was far from his present position, but the wind drove the sweet smell of the water to farther away areas.

Adam quickly moved towards the gate that bounded the embassy property, jumping over the obstacle to land near the southern end of the Stromovka park.

He reached Mecseryho Silnice a few minutes later, contacting the hacker with sub-vocal communication. «McTavish, any updates?»

« _I'm moving now in the direction of Planetárium Praha, about ten minutes and I'll be at my destination. Make your way to Výstaviště, at the small café nearby._ »

The ex-SWAT received the information by syncing his radar with the address, heading quickly to the meeting place.

Despite the darkness and the path not particularly suitable for that low light, his optics gave him a perfect view of the immense and dense landscape of the park. He had no reason to limit himself during the journey, undertaking a moderate ride to his destination without feeling tired and without encountering any random patrol to survey the area.

His breath came out of his lips in a light and humid cloud, he had the sensation of perceiving rivulets of condensation on his beard and in his hair scarred by both the weak cold wind and the speed of his gait. When he felt the first drops of a faint drizzle on the skin of his face, he understood why the air was so much stickier than before.

He arrived at his destination a few seconds early, just in time to identify with greater accuracy the best point where McTavish would surely stop to pick him up. When he saw the hacker's car turn off a side road, he felt a slight relief pouring into his veins.

The vehicle pulled over to his side, allowing him to move his hand over the door to pull it towards him and open it. He took a quick look at Koller, still in the back seat, to continue to soothe that primordial sense of anxiety that had surprised him inside the embassy. He took one look at Artair to find him intent on showing him a half-satisfied smile, even though he frowned in a nod of careful concentration.

Maybe Adam really didn't have anything to worry about with the hacker. Maybe his paranoia was abundantly unjustified.

And yet Jensen was forced to lock himself while he was bent forward towards the open car door. Not because there was anything wrong with McTavish, on the contrary. BlueDevil found himself shocked for the same reason.

The feeling of nervousness that held Adam's stomach in a vice became apparent along with the odious familiarity of blue and red lights that dimly illuminated that part of the street. Accompanied by a pair of high beams from a well-functioning state police car that with precise inclemency inundated them among the yellowish contrasts of the streetlights.

«Hey, you. Stay right where you are.» The police officer's peremptory order, broadcast via the loudspeaker integrated into the car, further stiffened the ex-SWAT.

Vaclav let slip an expletive, followed freewheelingly by Artair. Jensen stayed bent over towards them, taking a quick glance at the car several meters away, a single angle of the head to watch two men in uniform come out with their weapons flattened, ready to approach.

«Jensen...», his doctor murmured concerned, watching him.

It was quite obvious what Koller was worried about: for someone like him to be there, in a neighborhood like that, was a ticket to Golem. He could have all his papers in order, he could find the support of an Interpol agent and a _natural_ , but Vaclav knew how risky it was to reach that part of Prague at that time of night.

Suddenly, the prospect of being so close to what Adam was doing was no longer such an attractive prospect.

«Shit, we don't need this», BlueDevil said, addressing ex-SWAT in the same uncertain terms.

The agent barely clenched both fists, the left one resting on the upper frame of the car while the right one held the door open. If he didn’t act quickly, it was sure that those men would open fire as soon as they realized how _dangerous_ he was. They only needed a closer look to see how his carbon arms shone under the artificial lights.

He knew he had to do something, try not to stir things up any further. Artair gave him a long, attentive look, intent on unbuckling his seat belt with thoughtful slowness. Christ, if McTavish dared to open the door on his side sooner than expected, the cops wouldn’t hesitate.

Jensen silently peered at him for a long moment, a faint nod of the head to indicate his disagreement with that absolutely insane initiative. Any hasty decision would endanger the lives of the doctor and the hacker.

Though refractory to the idea, the only solution was to stun the officers. He would have waited until they were close enough to quickly load two TESLA ammunition and knock them out without causing them too much damage.

He barely had time to straighten up on his back and bend his head in the direction of the cops, the dark shields that concealed his eyes and cast sharp shadows on his face. However, his gaze was focused beyond the two of them, and he couldn't avoid it.

He couldn't say exactly what happened to the patrol car. One moment it was perfectly active, with the high beams on and the sirens blazing that gave a good idea of who the car belonged to, even from long distances, and the next moment it was _literally_ crumpled upon itself in a short but ferocious metal clash. Like it had been crushed by an invisible press from every possible angle and like any electrical circuit had been destroyed just as quickly. All the lights in the car went out in unison, along with a couple of nearby street lamps that sizzled loudly and visibly, throwing that portion of the road into sudden darkness.

The officers turned alarmed by the noise and poor visibility, too troubled to realize they were turning their backs on possible suspects. The view of the service car reduced in that state was enough to confuse them for the necessary time, that handful of seconds enough to see a figure in black coming out from a dark corner beyond Artair's car, moving with a slow and measured pace to the rear of the hacker's vehicle, stopping close enough to the policemen.

Jensen had stayed in that stiffened position for the same reason, the expression dismayed. Seeing the patrol car turn into a steel cube without any logical explanation left him so upset that he couldn't take his eyes off the now unusable vehicle. And even though out of the corner of his eye he had seen that dark shadow move beyond his range of vision, for a moment he thought it was BlueDevil. But he hadn’t heard the sound of the door opening, nor had he perceived the normal vibrations caused by McTavish leaving his car.

In fact, the hacker only got out at that point. And he found himself terribly close to the mysterious individual.

Adam was still on the other side. The first sensation that the augmented man felt about that absurd situation was of pure concern, sure that he wouldn’t have had time to stand between the man and the stranger. The second feeling continued to be of sordid bewilderment.

The sight of the two policemen, who remained motionless for interminable seconds, turned in unison towards each other, approached each other a few steps apart and, grabbing each other by their bulletproof vests, made a synchronized movement to hit each other's foreheads, surprised him greatly. They crashed to the ground with a couple of mumbling groans, the large-caliber weapons that fell next to them.

Jensen wasn't actually able to say what _the hell_ was going on but he recovered the necessary lucidity to turn to McTavish and the person in front of him.

Even if because of Artair's machine he couldn't see the mysterious figure in his whole body, the agent recognized a black tactical battle dress, with Kevlar plates and special thickenings in the parts of the arms and shoulders. A full hood almost completely covered the face of the stranger, only the portion of the eyes left exposed. The back of the head was grotesquely elongated, almost deformed, but under the headgear, a voluminous mass of hair was surely hidden, well gathered against the nape.

For Adam, it was suddenly easy to identify in the physicality of that person decidedly obvious female forms, together with the evident short stature.

A woman, it was a woman.

Whoever she was, she slowly turned to BlueDevil, a single movement of her head to make the hacker understand that she was watching him. In fact, it was enough for him to see a pair of blue eyes to hear a long sigh coming from the man, together with the composure of the shoulders that vanished immediately.

Adam waited no longer. At the same instant that person took the first step, he jumped over the car, literally overtaking it and landing between the two with the nanoblade of his right arm perfectly exposed.

He had expected everything, except to see the stranger raise her hands in peace and walk back several steps. Her blue eyes, of an incredibly vivid shade, pointed at him with a hint of uncertainty, an initial fear that quickly changed into proud control. And the woman chose not to retreat any further, revealing a sign of defiance made even shameless by her attentive frown.

«Hey, hey, hey», Artair immediately stepped in, hurrying over the agent to stand between him and the other person. «Easy, Jensen. Easy. She’s not an enemy. It's all right.»

In that slight uproar, Koller had promptly moved away from that side of the car to get out of the side his _patient_ had just left, in an ephemeral attempt to keep a proper distance between him and the others. And at the same time to try to better understand what had happened in a matter of minutes.

McTavish, standing next to the agent, gave a look of anticipation to Adam, the brown eyes that thundered several times on the sharp extension of the carbon arm. When he folded his face toward the other person, he shook his head in a gesture of dissent.

«What are you doing here? How on earth...», the hacker began in an exasperated tone. «Please, get that thing out of your face.»

The woman did what was requested without any hesitation, releasing the top of her head from one part of the hood and lowering the rest on her neck.

When Jensen was finally able to observe the face of the stranger, it took him a few seconds to find a match in his memory.

With the dyed hair of that eccentric violet tied in a tight bun, the black tattoo of a seahorse on her left cheekbone, and eyes and lips devoid of cosmetic embellishments, the girl who had sung and played on stage at Crannóg seemed to be even younger, by looking at her so closely. She had a relatively common-hearted face, skin so pale in the hue that it naturally brought out a faint redness on her cheeks, as well as the tattoo, but her eyes, due to their incredibly vivid color, gave her a warm, soft look.

From that short distance, Adam could also guess her height, sure that she didn’t exceed 5'25"; and yet, despite her short stature, she had a natural bearing that made her slender, a feral physicality that reminded him of the silent and ferocious performance of a beast ready to attack.

The young girl took a long look at the hacker before turning her blue eyes to the other two men. Actually, she only looked at Koller for a single moment and then returned to Jensen to never look away from the agent again.

«So, now you're relying on the augs?», she asked.

It was easy to guess who she asked that question to. Her voice was slightly scratchy, perhaps to make her tone even more skeptical and mature, but there was a bizarre amusement on her face, like if she was actually simply trying to annoy the hacker.

Vaclav seemed to recognize her only at that moment, the perfectly visible surprise expression. «But you are... But she is...», he said on the other side of the car, facing BlueDevil at last.

McTavish ignored him without much ceremony to focus completely on the girl, raising his hands in an exasperated gesture against his hips. «What the hell are you doing here? How did you find me?»

They knew each other, there was no doubt about it. Adam could say with absolute conviction that those two knew each other very well. Part of his mind, guided by the intuition that had never betrayed him, began to outline an absurd scenario. Possible, but remarkably absurd.

He moved a short step towards the two _naturals_ , the ceramic nanoblade of the right limb still exposed and the elbow slightly bent to accompany the move. His steps were immediately intercepted by the young girl, who had continued to focus her attention only on him.

«If you come any closer to my uncle with that thing unsheathed, I'm gonna blow your arm off», she said.

«Uncle?», Koller repeated, the look that moved among the presents.

Jensen let slip a slight grimace, followed by a slightly deeper breath that indicated a subtle state of astonishment. He was particularly surprised to notice how the girl didn't seem particularly worried about the possible use of the nanoblade against her, revealing instead a bizarre apprehension for Artair.

She called him " _uncle_." She really called him " _uncle_ "?

«Threaten me a second time, you little girl», Jensen provoked her anyway, the expression serious.

Artair moved in front of the young woman completely, resting his palms on her shoulders to shake her slightly and guide her to take a few steps back, so that she could distance herself from the agent of the Collective.

«Enough already!», the hacker blurted out, his voice slightly altered. When he gave her yet another look of reproach, he also pointed his index finger at her in a clear accusatory nod. « _You_! You shouldn't be here. How did you...»

«Can we talk about this elsewhere?», she interrupted him, ignoring the authoritarian attitude of the man. «Or have you guys still got to do what you came here for? That would be rather disappointing, since you've been caught by the police like three idiots.»

«Hey...», Vaclav complained, resentful. Not that he could expose such dissent, on balance the girl had pointed out something shamefully obvious.

Jensen let the sensation of discomfort poured into his veins be visible even on his face, a clear hint of detached skepticism that caused his forehead to frown considerably and made his expression much more wrinkled. McTavish's behavior spurred him on to sheath the blade anyway, even though he decided to cross his arms to his chest in an authoritarian gesture, making it clear that he didn’t believe the conversation was over.

To be fair, the girl was right, that wasn't the place to talk. Moreover, the light drizzle that had started about twenty minutes earlier hadn’t stopped moistening everyone for a single moment.

Yet, it was enough to bring the nanoblade back to its place to notice through the social enhancer how a slight feeling of relief radiated from the young girl, manifesting itself in a faint softening of the female facial lines left exposed by the battle dress. That detail made him realize that the stranger's physical and verbal responses had been a direct consequence of how much BlueDevil was _supposedly_ in danger, first with the cops and then with a sharp weapon so close by.

It was actually quite obvious that Adam had no intention of using that augmentation of his against the hacker, and it was certain that she understood it without any problem. So, it was another stance, the choice to point out that she was there to protect McTavish.

No small detail. And he, who was an excellent observer, could sense that absurd _truth_ in a few moments and with a quick glance.

«Selene, give it a rest», Artair scolded her again, shaking his head, then turned to the two other men. «We have to leave now.»

BlueDevil simply moved towards the turned-on car, overtaking the ex-SWAT and hoping that his gesture would be taken as an example by the other three. Koller spread his arms slightly in front of him, uncertain and confused, while Adam stubbornly kept an eye on the young girl, who gave him a cheeky smile, bowing her head in an amused nod and emulating him as she crossed her arms to her chest.

McTavish reached the side of the car and opened the door, exasperated by the situation. «Selene, come on!»

«Yeah, yeah. I get it», she answered with half a laugh, raising her hands again in a nod of surrender and denying with her head. «It seems wise to shout my name like this. Have you learned nothing from all these years of activity?», she added, addressing BlueDevil in that tone of brazen confidence.

«I'm absolutely sure», Artair began in a much lower but very nervous voice, turning to her, «that the moment you ravaged a police car and assaulted two officers, you also took the trouble to destroy their radios and any video system incorporated into the vehicle. So yes, I don't give a shit about calling your name.»

He gave her a bright brown look of evident exasperation, one hand busy holding the driver's door open and the other promptly drawing an imaginary clear and precise line towards the car.

«Now get in the goddamn car.»

The girl tilted her head one last time, a sly smile on her lips before turning slightly to her side to walk. She moved with the same relaxed pace as she circumnavigated the back of the man's car, passing by Vaclav without the slightest hesitation — he followed her with his eyes until he turned completely on his spot so as not to lose sight of her, his artificial hands slightly off the torso.

When she settled into the passenger seat, the young girl didn’t wait for any instructions or requests, choosing on her own to stand there in yet another stance.

Jensen noticed Artair casting a dismayed glance at him, perhaps containing the silent request to reserve after any questions. There was no doubt that he had any, and that they crowded his mind with some overbearing.

If before he had considered that situation, the whole story that McTavish had told him incredibly absurd, at that moment he found in it totally surreal connotations. Because Artair's words, among the last ones he had uttered, gave some sense to what he had seen a few moments before.

Or maybe not, maybe there was still no explanation for how that police car had curled up on itself and how those two policemen had deliberately hit each other.

But _she_ was the one who did it.

It made sense. It had to make sense.

In Artair's gaze, the agent nodded imperceptibly. He moved to get back to the car, urging Vaclav to do the same. «Come on, Koller.»

Jensen took one last look at the officers lying on the ground and the wreckage from the vehicle. It wasn't sure what he was getting into, what other madness he was deliberately throwing himself into with open arms.

It wasn't just curiosity that drove him. The need to know the truth still had the power to lead him through the most reckless decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooookay. Chapter two.  
> I'm quite convinced that a large part of those who read the first chapter had already widely guessed that the "fem!OriginalCharacter" I mentioned in the introduction was the girl who sang at Artair's pub. And yes, in my opinion, many of you had already understood that the hacker's niece was still alive and that it was her.  
> The truth is, I'm not capable to write twists and turns. Violent scenes, yes. Love scenes, yes. Sex scenes, too. But I suck at twists and turns.
> 
> For tender Selene, I used actress India Eisley as a prop. With purple hair and all the tattoos. I have some photos on my computer where I modified her hair color: how awkward can I be?  
> Let's say that for an abundant year not even I knew what face to associate with this protagonist of mine, but for the name I was inspired by Selene from the movie "Underworld". But after some time I wondered what was the name of the actress who had played Selene's daughter, Eve, in the chapter "The Awakening".  
> And ta-daaan! When I saw India in normal clothes, I told myself that Selene could be played by her.
> 
> In this regard, I highly recommend watching the TV mini-series "I am the night", set in the 60s: India plays a 16-year-old girl who is possibly connected to the Black Dahlia killer, and she will be helped by a journalist played by Chris Pine.  
> I admit that this series has fuelled my passion for relationships where there's an obvious age gap, a considerable age difference between the two lovers, even if there's absolutely nothing in the show to suggest that there's anything romantic between the characters played by India and Chris.
> 
> And so I take advantage of this moment to say that in this fanfiction there is an obvious age difference between Adam Jensen and Selene.  
> If you think you are bothered by this, leave the story without any regrets. We go our separate ways.  
> I'm thirty-two years old but I'm crazy about romantic relationships with the age difference, where the youngest partner is always of legal age: how awkward can I be?
> 
> P.S. I want so badly to play Human Revolution again. I'll probably run a new game today. I'm already reading Black Light AGAIN, to keep some glossary on hand. I got other things to do, I should be a mature person... Help! xD


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Vaclav explore the story of Artair and Selene, confronting these two new personalities so similar and decisive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys. I have a feeling that in this chapter the translation work was less precise than the previous ones, probably there are mistakes that I couldn't detect.  
> Let me know if there is anything to correct, I will be infinitely grateful.

The constant buzz of Artair's car was the only source of noise for the next ten minutes or so. The car moved within the speed limits with a certain amount of care, driving calmly through the Bubeneč district and sped towards the streets that connected to the city center.

Just like the outward journey, a good part of the night view was well lit by the street lamps on the sides, concrete and steel poles erected on the well-cared and clean sidewalks. The nearby buildings alternated between high edifices and low-rise constructions, always decorated in the classic colors typical of the Czech capital. This was yet another residential district for naturals that boasted diligent maintenance and fashionable shops.

McTavish was deliberately avoiding the routes most exposed to possible police checks, obviously taking longer to reach his destination. He held his hands on the steering wheel with a certain tension, his expression contracted in a grimace of disappointment.

The girl, whose name seemed to be Selene, sat quietly with her legs crossed and raised on the dashboard, her feet covered with tactical boots that swayed nonchalantly, her face slightly bent over the panorama outside the window.

She sang a whispering tune that didn't completely reach the ears of the men, there were only very few moments of absolute silence that allowed the other three to guess what she was humming. Her hands protected by black gloves were lying on her belly, her fingers crossed and her palms flat on her belly covered by her battle vest. The bun with which she was holding her purple hair in place seemed to have loosened a little when she had settled better against the seat, sliding forward to make room for her raised legs. A single purple lock had stretched to the left side of her face, the tattoo of the seahorse seemed to hide beyond that faint curtain.

Vaclav couldn't help but feel like a fish out of water. From his position, right behind the young girl, he was casting question glances at the hacker. Adam, sitting instead behind BlueDevil, held his arms against his legs, his back straight and his head turned without uncertainty about the female presence, his coat tightly closed over his body and the shields that still concealed his _alien_ eyes.

Jensen hadn't lost sight of the girl for a moment. It was for that reason that he could describe precisely how she had decided to entrench herself in amused silence. She must have been aware of how much her presence had _bothered_ BlueDevil and how it had surprised the two augmented men.

He saw her and heard her barely holding a puff, a cheerful sigh accompanied by the slight elevation of the shoulder visible from his position. He watched her turn her head towards McTavish first, and then took a direct look at the Interpol agent, the only one she could look without turning completely around on the seat.

«Shall I start with the introductions, then?», she asked, the more relaxed voice than at first, going back to the hacker again.

Artair freed his chest from an exasperated verse, denying slightly with his head but without distracting himself from the road. «Selene...»

The young girl leaned a little more towards the back of the vehicle, ignoring the man next to her and still keeping her ankles raised on the dashboard.

«As you may have guessed, my name is Selene, and I am his niece», she continued, pointing to Artair with a nod of her hand.

Jensen remained silent, waiting, his gaze still hidden by the dark shields and his expression forcibly controlled. His doctor, on the other hand, leaned slightly towards the center of the seat, so that he could be looked by and look at the girl without further movement.

«Niece?», he asked, followed by a brief pause. « _That_ niece? His sister's daughter?»

The young girl smiled, falsely impressed by those words, giving a glance to her uncle. «Oh, you told your new friends about me?»

Her tone was cheerful but it was easy to detect a subtle vein of sarcasm. Her facial lines were soft and relaxed, just like her blue eyes, but the sense beyond her words had been obvious.

«Stop it», replied the hacker.

Vaclav took the trouble to ask another _question_ , ignoring the common sense that had suggested to him for a split second to wait for a better moment. He was a little too curious to wait for real. «But weren't you dead?»

The girl took a hand to her chest, once again the expression engaged in demonstrating a fictitious feeling, of blatant and false bewilderment, again interested in poking her relative.

«Oh, you told them I was dead? You're a bad uncle. Double Christmas present, or I go back to my father's surname and leave yours, that's it», she continued in an ironic tone, ending the chatter with that ridiculous threat.

McTavish exhaled in a long sigh of exasperation, squeezing his fingers on the steering wheel with more force and swaying slightly on the seat to find a more comfortable position. Or to calm down himself. «How did you find us?»

Selene took another look at the two augmented men, a quick look to make sure she still had all their attention. She nodded her head at the man driving, smiling openly.

Adam understood that this was yet another gesture of pure mockery, which he considered childish and annoying, like the answer she gave a moment later.

«I tracked the GPL signal from your vu-phone», replied the girl, staying silent for a few moments. «You taught me how to do that, remember?»

BlueDevil glanced at her, his face contracted into a much more nervous grimace. «No more games, Selene. What the hell were you doing there?»

The niece raised her hands with a surprised look, pretending to be bitter. «Aside from getting you out of trouble?», she raged, finally facing the road in front of the car.

Artair's umpteenth glance was enough to make her take a less brazen stance, but still huffing at that demand for seriousness. She put her feet back on the mat, taking care not to step on her relative's duffel bag, and crossed her arms to her chest as if she was deeply annoyed by her uncle's answers.

«You know very well why I came to you», she said in a much lower voice.

She remained silent for an imprecise time, a few seconds of quiet to find something else to go on, to return to the deliberately light chatter of a few moments before. She took a long look at Artair, scrutinizing his unnerved profile, and then bent her face slightly against her left shoulder. She simply waved a nod of her hand at the two men in the back seat without looking at them.

«Are you going to take them with you? Tell them certain things? Without questioning me? Without taking my opinion into account? What do they know?»

McTavish muttered a rather colorful expletive, a glaring sign of his obvious discontent, but didn’t reply. He didn’t wish to engage in that speech _again_ at such a time, while he was so angry.

Adam couldn't stand that brazen, annoying attitude any longer and decided to take the floor. «You want to know what I know? Why don't you turn around and ask me, instead of pretending we don't exist? By the way, that's real mature behavior, little girl.»

The young woman twirled her head in an accommodating nod, finally giving him a curious look, smiling at him for a brief moment, only to return and stare back at BlueDevil. «Oh, now I get it. You didn't tell him who I am, or he wouldn't have the balls to talk to me like that. Yet after what I _did_ to those cops, he should show some self-preservation.»

Koller barely held back a laugh, taking his red hand to his mouth to suffocate the growing hilarity on his lips. Jensen gave him a look hidden by the shields that made him sit a little further away from him,

The agent returned to stare at her from that short distance, a simple imaginary diagonal line from him to her to which the hacker's niece continued not to respond, precisely because she was trying in every way to point out how irrelevant she thought him was.

«I'll gladly show you my spirit of self-preservation if you threaten me again», the agent told her.

Selene beckoned in an amused nod, finally bending her face to look at the ex-SWAT and take a long, silent look at him, at least until she decided to answer him. «I'll let you try, out of curiosity. But maybe not in the car. I'd rather be comfortable.»

Jensen raised an eyebrow, not so surprised by such behavior but equally doubtful by it.

Although a part of himself felt a strong impulse to impose with a certain authority on that girl's speech, actually he had to admit that he understood that the real aim of the young woman was to make her uncle exasperate: he recognized a family conflict when he saw it. He didn't even need to use the C.A.S.I.E. implant to verify that thesis.

Artair seemed to receive the same intention, sighing deeply, at the limit of a possible rant. He shook his head as if to clear his mind and finally inhaled once again, trying to calm those unpleasant sensations.

«Yes, she's my niece. Yes, she's my sister Sheena's daughter. And no, as you can see, she's not dead.»

Selene burst out laughing loudly, a short, fresh laugh that lightened her tone of voice quite a bit, although shortly afterward she let the rest slip by, what McTavish was deliberately ignoring. «But my parents, yes. They're dead.»

She said it like she was pointing to something insignificant, something obvious. Something that didn't upset or destabilize her. But Adam _sure_ recorded the slight change in her natural heartbeat, the social enhancer that gave him the specter of that _little girl_ 's personality.

She oscillated abundantly between the _alpha_ and _omega_ types, with a decisive and combative temperament, and a form of obstinate rebellion against the personalities who tried to control her.

Jensen wasn't sure which answer would be best suited to lead her on a more collaborative conversation. Probably the CASIE wouldn't have been enough to _win_ a dialogue with the hacker's niece.

Yet it wasn't what Adam wanted to focus on. That _little girl_ lied. Not in words, but in gestures, in reactions. For one very understandable reason.

Artair gave her an uncertain look, as if he was incapable of establishing the young girl's emotions, as opposed to how the agent had succeeded. He decided to ignore that doubt and continue, returning to stare with renewed attention at the road ahead.

«We'll talk about the rest when we're somewhere safe, at my house or directly at the pub», BlueDevil proposed.

Selene shook her head, drawing attention to herself again. «There will still be people at Crannóg.»

She let slip a brief pause, glancing at Adam, a small smile on her lips before seeing her open her mouth again.

She must have intuited how much the man was studying her, because, having ascertained that the relative had no intention of answering other questions at that moment, she tried to annoy the agent a little.

«But back to us, I think you know some manners. It's your turn to introduce yourselves», she said in an amused voice. «Or may I decide to call you my way? For him», she continued, pointing to Adam with a wave of her hand, «I may already have one in mind. Would _sunshine_ suit you?»

«Good heavens...», Artair murmured, deciding to step on the gas a bit more.

Wise choice, because Jensen was starting to be less patient than expected. Not that he really wanted to show his disappointment physically, but with words he could give himself a little leeway.

«You got a too long tongue, little girl», he cut it short.

The young woman gave him a hilarious look, tilting her head in a confident gesture from over her shoulder. «You have no idea how much, sweetie.»

The tone of voice used hinted at an unambiguous and decidedly disarming meaning.

Jensen frowned, almost incredulous.

It wasn't exactly the response he had expected, he hadn't anticipated that kind of comment. It wasn’t the first time he had heard something like that from a person, not when there was a clear intention to minimize his presence from his interlocutor, but certainly not from a girl who had to be at least ten years younger than him, if not more.

Sexual jokes left very little room for any attempt to improve a not exactly relaxed conversation, and she knew it. The girl had entrenched herself in a less willing attitude. After all, Jensen had already figured that out.

The hacker coughs a couple of times, trying to appease his niece's behavior and make the other men forget the malicious allusion that still permeated the vehicle air.

It was the young doctor who completely relieved the tension, leaning between the two front seats, the two-finger missing mechanical hand moved towards the girl in an obvious gesture. «It's a pleasure to meet you, Selene. I am Vaclav Koller.»

The hacker's niece turned better on her side, a singular moment of hesitation in fixing the robotic arm first and then the sincerely enthusiastic expression of the boy sitting behind her. When she responded to the handshake she did so with a sort of cautious curiosity, as if she didn’t expect to receive such a _greeting_.

«The pleasure is all mine, Vaclav», she answered, the cheerful, amused voice. «If my memory doesn't deceive me, I've seen you often in the pub.»

«Yeah, well... Crannóg has quickly gained the nomination to welcome augs without any problems. I couldn't help but become a regular.» The boy continued in an enthusiastic voice, observing her with keen interest. «And I also admit I'm a fan of yours.»

«A fan of mine?», Selene repeated a little confused. «Oh, do you talk about live music nights? Well, uh... Thank you. You’re kind», she said in a slightly lower tone.

An obvious redness colored her cheeks despite the artificial lights outside didn’t make it easy to guess that reaction.

Adam, although he seemed to be facing the seat in front of him totally, hadn't stopped looking at her from beyond the shields. He detected that slight under-skin heat radiating onto the female face only thanks to his optics and CASIE mod.

So, it was flattery that quieted down her annoying chatter? Or was that _little girl_ not used to compliments at all?

«Do you play any instruments?», she asked, changing the subject of the conversation. «You look like a guitar guy to me, or maybe a bass player.»

«Guitar», Koller admitted with a thirty-two-toothed smile, sitting better on the seat without trying to invade Jensen's personal space. «But I'm not a musician. It's more a hobby. I have a bookshop in the augs district, just a few steps from the Čapek Fountain Station.»

Selene nodded quickly, responding with a slightly smaller smile. She listened to the rest without looking away from the boy but found herself giving the ex-SWAT a quick look anyway.

When McTavish turned at an intersection familiar to her, starting to slow down, she sat perfectly back in her seat, a long sigh before raising her head upwards, staring for a few moments at the car's roof to indicate that she was about to say something else.

«I'm gonna find out your name anyway, _sunshine_. And what _the hell_ you got out of doing that infiltration at the Russian Embassy», Selene said in a once again serious voice, a latent tension that raised her shoulders and back muscles.

«I beg your pardon?», Adam flashed, the tone just cracked by a vein of nervousness.

BlueDevil stopped the vehicle with short but sonorous braking, certain to have to intervene, but his niece just got out of the car too fast, leaving the three men rather bewildered by that abrupt and sudden movement. They watched her as she walked without waiting for them to a dark door in a three-story building, the white façade lit by suspended street lamps.

Artair moved his head in a vague nod of dissent, grabbing the duffel bag that had been stowed at the foot of the passenger seat and taking a look at the two augmented men.

«I'll understand your point of view if, after tonight, you want to suspend our... Our collaboration», he said in a low voice.

Vaclav brought his fingers to the handle of the door on his side, suggesting that he was in a hurry to get out of the car. «No problem, I must admit I'm particularly curious.»

Jensen took a few moments before answering, observing the female figure several feet away, her arms crossed over her chest protected by her tactical vest and her face proudly facing them.

Selene had untied her hair on her back, a voluminous mass that in the light of the Prague night took on darker and more intense colors, as if between her locks there were parts of red and blue.

After a quick sigh, the ex-SWAT took the trouble to take a long, hidden look at the hacker, a faint nod before responding.

«Depending on what you are willing to provide me, I will consider how to act», he said calmly.

As doubtful as he was about the whole thing, why Artair had lied about his niece's fate and why that girl had made so many complaints, Adam certainly didn’t forget the possibility of finding something to pursue his goal with.

Stopping the Illuminati was more important than anything else.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

When they were in the small hallway of the building, Selene ran down the stairs to the right without giving the others time to answer her in any way, her free hair that left a trail of violet behind her.

«I go up by foot», she simply said, crossing the steps two by two.

Artair raised his arms for a brief moment, then dropped them against his hips. «This way is the elevator. Let's go.»

The three men waited for the sliding door to open, positioning themselves inside in silence. McTavish pressed the button for the top floor, holding the duffel bag against his shoulder, an object that occupied a discreet space between those small four walls.

Adam had the bizarre feeling that the girl had chosen to continue up the stairs to allow them to be more comfortable. Probably it must have been a wrong conclusion, it was much more likely that Selene didn’t feel particularly comfortable staying so close to two strangers.

The data recorded through the CASIE were still easily accessible, readable through the HUD. That was only the umpteenth behavioral response that confirmed the mixed personality typology of the young girl, a sort of symbiosis between _alpha_ and _omega_.

It was rare to meet someone with a similar aptitude spectrum, an individual where there was no clear line between the two sides, something hanging more _from one side_ than the other. It seemed more plausible in a much more mature person, later in life.

Perhaps Jensen was wrong about Selene's age, although such a hypothesis clashed with the story told by Artair and the young woman's appearance.

On reaching the selected floor, the hacker moved first to make his way. They found the door on the right wide open, some noises coming from inside suggested that the girl had settled down without any problems.

BlueDevil's apartment was rather modest, the entrance hall gave directly to a living area with a red fabric couch in the furthest part of the room, almost under one of the large front windows, with pearl-colored curtains all the way to the floor moved to the edges. In front of the sofa, there was a small equipped wall unit that housed a small-inch television and a bookcase, a closed-door just to the side of it. Between the windows and the couch, a somewhat bulky easel had been placed with a half-painted canvas that represented a stretch of the urban landscape probably visible from that point, beyond the closed shutters. The kitchen corner was to the right of the main door, while the small dining table with four chairs was on the left, with a couple of pantries along the wall and a second door left ajar just before the sofa.

They found Selene intent on dedicating all her attention to the fridge, bent slightly forward to look inside; her straight legs and tactical clothing left little doubt as to how much the dress adhered to her skin like a glove, outlining her feminine forms, her hair held close distractedly with her free hand.

Vaclav stood motionless for a moment staring at her, locking himself in place while McTavish overtook him to leave the duffel bag on the dining table. Artair brought his hands to his hips, shaking his head with resignation while he was, fortunately, facing the rest of the room, ignoring Koller's slightly too obvious gaze.

Jensen crossed his arms to his chest after closing the door behind him, passing in front of his doctor to _break_ the line of sight and bring Vaclav back to a necessary composure.

He certainly didn't need to notice how distracted the boy was, even if he didn't think it was possible to witness something like that again: seeing his doctor _distracted_ by a person who hadn't any augmentations was quite unlikely.

Koller seemed to revive himself, crossing his arms to his chest and turning to look at Artair, waiting for the hacker to answer the many unexpressed questions hovering in the room.

«Anyone wants a beer?», the girl proposed without even taking a look.

When the three of them stared at her without saying anything, the young girl was still bent over towards the fridge. She lifted herself with a can in one gloved hand and turned on her side, finally rolling her eyes in a grimace, that _clear_ answer that convinced her not to waste any more time.

She moved her hair back, closed the fridge door with her free hand and took her place on the shelf of the nearby kitchen, sitting on it with a small leap and crossing her legs, her back straight against the wall behind.

The silence that fell among them forced Artair to sigh deeply, looking at his two guests. He moved to get closer to both of them, leaving that symbolic distance between him and his niece. Another demonstration of how reckless he considered the actions of his relative.

«Where do you want me to start?», he asked, trying to be helpful.

«Maybe with the reason you got involved with other people», Selene replied, equally aware of what her uncle's behavior meant. She looked around for a moment, pretending to be surprised. «Oh, I'm sorry, were you talking to them? Because I'd say I should be the one who deserves an explanation.»

«Selene, please...», BlueDevil snorted, taking a few steps in her direction.

«Please _my ass..._ », she hissed her teeth tight, glancing deeply at the relative, shaking her head a little later and taking a long sip of beer to calm herself.

McTavish squeezed his shoulders, uncertain. He watched her for a few more moments before vigorously denying it with his head, finally pointing at her with a firm nod of his hand and advancing further towards her.

«Do you really want to have this conversation right now? All right», he provoked her in a serious tone, staring back at the other two men after he turned his back on her. «What I told you at Crannóg is all true, except for the death of my niece. All the information in the device I showed you at the pub, the Hymeneal Plan...»

At those words the girl let out a quick sigh, the can between her fingers was squeezed in a slight spasm and caused a dry and fast noise. She continued to drink the beer as if nothing had happened, her gaze turned to the floor in front of the cabinet she was sitting on. Her uncle took a quick look at her, returning after a moment to observe the other two guests.

Adam probed with the social enhancer the young woman's reaction, finding uneasiness and something difficult to interpret: maybe fear, maybe anger, maybe resentment again. It was suddenly difficult to give a more precise answer, precisely because there was no easy pattern to follow.

«My niece was born in the Horus Field structure in 2007, on November 5th, to be precise. She was the last guinea pig... _Person_ , excuse me, on whom they tested», McTavish continued, the voice a little calmer.

Selene let out a half-laugh, finishing the drink in a few moments. She squeezed the can in one hand but held it between her fingers to squeeze it further in the following minutes, like a sort of anti-stress object.

BlueDevil turned on his side to look at her, so that if necessary, it could simply turn his head to one side or the other so as not to exclude even the two augmented men. «Selene...»

«Tested, dissected, brutalized, tortured, massacred», she said, her voice as still as the blind spot she stubbornly stared at, her gaze low on the floor. «You choose what seems worse to you, what can enclose what they have done to me. Ah, not forgetting that they killed my parents when we tried to escape.»

The girl came down from the pantry too quickly, a sudden movement that the others three saw in unison, yet each of them felt that they had lost some detail of how the young woman had loosened the position of her crossed legs, or how the beer can had been thrown to the dustbin about three feet away from her.

Selene took a couple of steps towards Artair, the bright blue gaze of a ferine glow. Or maybe of a _wounded_ one. Adam wasn't sure what he was reading in her cautious frown.

«They killed them in front of my eyes when I was only thirteen», she added looking at her uncle without hesitation. «Tell me, did you share the rest of that? What happened when they died?»

McTavish exhaled slowly, turning totally towards his niece, his brown eyes rippling at the mere hearing of those words. « _Christ_ , Selene. No, I... Not now...»

The young woman remained silent for a short time, intent on deciding what to say next, how to behave. Whether to continue to maintain that detached skepticism, accompanied by legitimate doubt, or whether to take an even more ostracizing attitude instead.

She lifted her face in a safe gesture, only moving a little to the side to avoid being _covered_ by Artair's presence. She turned to the augmented men, probing them calmly, beginning to advance towards them with equal composure.

«You'll have to forgive my bluntness if I find your involvement in this matter absolutely useless. And even if you decide not to _forgive me_ , I honestly don't care. I will still not want you in my way», the girl concluded, suddenly much more firmly.

«Selene, wait a sec», McTavish filmed her, grabbing her by the wrist with extreme delicacy, trying to get back in front of her.

«No, I don't. You've been caught by the police...», the young lady pointed out, stopping only to look at the relative.

Jensen took several steps in their direction, raising a hand to stop that ridiculous squabble. It was all too obvious that there was _something_ else, _something_ unspoken, hovering between the two of them, but the ex-SWAT had no time to wait for them to settle their differences.

«McTavish», he began, suddenly standing next to the hacker's niece — and noting that he was about one foot taller than her. «What exactly was your intent, looking for someone like me capable of entering a militarized structure in Russia? I suppose your niece knew nothing about your decision.»

The girl shook her head in a surprised nod, alternating between the officer and her uncle.

To look at the closest augmented man, she literally had to tilt her head upwards, especially since he had stopped at her side as if he had no fear of her simple proximity. Or perhaps he was trying to repay her with the same coin, trying to ignore her and minimize her presence.

Maybe she deserved it, there was no doubt that on the road trip she was childish and immature, but she really couldn't stand being pushed aside.

«Oh, I get it now», she replied, totally addressed the relative. «Were you trying to push me out of our plan? From what kept us going for years? _My_ war! What I'm fighting for...»

BlueDevil sighed quickly, raising a hand to point to her in yet another gesture of exasperation. And tiredness. His face was visibly furrowed by a grimace of tiredness.

«The last time you...», he started, the voice that seemed to lose all depth.

Artair froze almost immediately, taking a look at the two guests. He decided to move away in the direction of Koller, passing by Selene and passing the doctor shortly afterward to take his place on a chair at the dining table. The niece stared at him for a few more moments before returning to look at the floor, entrenched herself in much more complete silence.

Adam finally sensed everything that hadn't been said: something very serious must have happened to convince the hacker to lie to the girl and to turn to the Collective, to some strangers. Something must have happened to Selene if McTavish was _desperate_ enough to ask Janus for help.

When he realized that from that short distance, he could observe her face better, he could see the few inches of dark regrowth that decorated the base of her hair. He could see a slight splash of ephelides on the bridge of her straight nose and the full lines of her lips. From that angle he could barely see the curly tail of the seahorse tattoo on the other side of her face, so in contrast to her pale skin as to stand out _unscrupulously_.

As the young woman seemed to stiffen for a moment, Adam had just enough time to lift his eyes to Koller before Selene caught him staring at her. Even if the shields covered his artificial eyes, it would still appear indelicate, rude, to look at her like that.

The doctor replied to the gaze with an uncertain expression, not really sure what he could say or do to convince Artair or Selene to conclude their _story_.

He moved hesitantly on the spot, turning his back on the agent and the girl to focus on BlueDevil. He sat next to the host with a sort of thoughtful kindness, even more dubious. Perhaps between the two relatives, it was the man who was the most reasonable.

«Artair, please, explain.» He lifted his face in the direction of the young woman, finding her looking subtly surprised. «Explain to us. If possible, we would like to help you.»

Selene shook her head in amazement.

Showing herself so grumpy and receiving such kindness and spontaneity in response continued to destabilize her. It was more legitimate to think that those two augs were playing the parts of the _good cop, bad cop_. Surely the _tall guy_ next to her was well within that context, even though calling him _bad_ didn't make any sense. Irritated and pragmatic, probably, but not bad.

Selene had met several _bad_ people, and the _ray-of-sunshine_ by her side certainly wasn't. She remembered perfectly well how that man, almost an hour earlier, had stood between her and her uncle to protect Artair, believing the girl to be a threat to the hacker.

No _villain_ would have done it as quickly.

«Damn...», she slammed, clearing her chest of a faint sigh.

She crossed her arms under her breast protected by her tactical robe to assume a restrained and careful pose, actually she was still trying to appear unsociable. She knew very well how uncomfortable she felt in giving in to that sudden reasonableness towards her.

«The last time my uncle and I planned a trip to a guarded place, things didn't go exactly as planned. Between him and me, I'm the one who has the skills to sneak into protected areas unnoticed. I can fight and defend myself, of course.»

McTavish raised his hand in the direction of the girl, his eyes full of seriousness. «You're minimizing what happened.»

«What's the point of making them participate in all this?», Selene answered him, loosening her arms as she advanced a few steps towards the relative. «You didn't tell me anything because you knew I wouldn't approve. This is my life, my past, and you let strangers know what happened to me», she added in a slightly lower voice. «Didn't you think about how I might feel when I found out? Because you know I would have found out anything, I wouldn't have stood by and watched.»

«Selene...», Artair tried to intervene.

«Don't treat me like I can't handle it. Don't treat me like a child. That version of me _did_ die with my parents years ago», she replied, denying all that discussion in a stern gesture _._

BlueDevil peered at her for a moment, muttering, exhaling shortly thereafter. Vaclav gave her a look of apology, not for his previous attempt to invite them to continue with the story, but because he somehow felt guilty for being a minor trigger in their _fight_. On balance, if he put himself in the girl's shoes, even if he didn't yet have a complete picture of the situation, he was quite in agreement with her.

Adam, a few steps behind the young woman, cleared his voice, arms crossed over his chest.

He could understand in turn the grievances of that _little girl_ , if there was anything he could _really_ understand was how easy it was to feel frustrated at the mere idea that someone, a total stranger, would _take over_ his life, his experiences, with the melodious pity that the events that had made him what he was. But as far as he was aware of it, the discussion was beginning to drag on longer than expected, and he didn't want to spend any more hours watching those two fighting.

«Are you done?», he asked her without bothering to appear rude or hurried. Vaclav was kind and helpful on both their behalf.

The young woman stiffened for a second, bursting out laughing shortly afterward. She turned to look at him with an amused expression, although it was easy to detect a hint of resentment. He risked _touching_ a sore point, behaving rudely. Perhaps all he had to do was be sincerely more empathetic.

«I haven't forgotten you, sunshine», she giggled, pointing at him carelessly.

«Hardly likely to happen», Adam replied, impatient. «What happened the last time you trespassed on a restricted area?», he continued blatantly addressing the hacker.

It was McTavish who answered, ignoring his niece's annoyed gesture. «Selene almost got killed. It happened two months ago, in France, on the outskirts of Nantes. It was a complex run mostly by AI and a few science staff. We hadn’t detected a massive use of security systems, including drones and turrets.»

Selene spread her hands exasperatedly, finally bringing them to her hips in a semblance of austerity. She decided to add the rest, interrupting the tale of the relative. If anyone was to talk about what had happened to her, she wanted to be the one to do so.

«The problem arose when I entered the storage room», she said quickly. «We'd been studying floor plans and computer systems for more than enough time, and I was perfectly able to avoid the few surveillance cameras all the way to the data room, but... My presence was recognized because of... We believe because of a search parameter built into their control system. _Someone_ knew what to look for and equipped the place with a tool to identify my genetic code.»

She paused to make sure that the meaning of her words was easy for the two augmented men to understand, trying to expose what had happened without engaging in a more complex discourse. Both of the two guests didn’t allow any uncertainty or confusion to appear, giving her the _go-ahead_ to continue.

«What was done to me while I was at Horus Field modified some segments of my DNA», she explained again. «Not what would have changed my appearance or shape, although I remember children born with more legs or arms, or without some of their end, if I may give an example. What I do, what I am capable of, is a consequence of those experiments, experiments that changed _me_ from a different point of view. If you have had a look at the Hymeneal Plan, you will surely know what I am talking about.»

Jensen barely held back the involuntary flick of his chin, bowing his head to quickly hide that reaction.

Listening to those words brought back memories and truths that were rather difficult to digest, which still haunted him and that would have the power to haunt him for a horribly long time. But it also gave an answer to what he had perceived from the beginning, the feeling that BlueDevil, although he said capable of hiding his tracks, had omitted an extremely relevant detail.

The fact that Selene had been caught during an infiltration put the whole matter on a much more difficult and complex level.

«Anyway», she continued, accompanying the rest with a nod, always addressed to the ex-SWAT, «as you can see, I managed to escape, I'm still here to talk about it. And I can continue to deal with all of this on my own.»

McTavish took a long look at her while she still had her back to him, the expression clearly showing how little he agreed with that statement. «You almost got killed...»

Selene denied it imperceptibly, sighing as she turned. «You can't protect me forever, uncle. Trying to push me out of _my_ war will lead me to go on by myself, without you.»

Artair pointed a forefinger at her, his brown eyes suddenly obscured by shadows of reproach and fear. «Don't you dare consider such a choice.»

«What about yours, then?», the niece replied, clutching her shoulders with yet another hint of resentment. «Your decision to involve other people, two strangers... I deserved to know about it.»

McTavish sighed deeply, muttering more than expected for a few moments. He, in turn, denied in a tired nod, bowing his face to the table. Vaclav, sitting a few steps away from him, continued to shift his gaze between the two relatives, waiting like Adam.

«I know. I'm sorry», BlueDevil replied in a calm tone, a long, deep breath before lifting his face to Jensen. «But back to your initial question, Adam, my intention remains unchanged: I want to make sure there are no more copies of the Hymeneal Plan, and then destroy the one we have. What happened in France must never happen again. If it should be necessary, I will also request the active collaboration of Janus.»

Artair paused again to find the right words to go on with, taking a firm look at the young woman. He wanted to let her the time and the way to understand that he didn't intend to give in, to change his mind about that decision which risked damaging their relationship completely.

«As good as I am as BlueDevil, I don't want to risk my niece's life again.»

The girl let out a grudge, bending her head towards the rest of the room and taking a few steps to turn her back to everyone, avoiding the others to look at her face.

«No!», she said, peremptorily. «Why should a stranger risk his life in my place? No, I don't accept that. And besides that, what do you know about them? How do you know all of this won't turn against us?»

Selene walked a few more steps away, her arms crossed over her chest again. She denied in a clear nod, her hair swaying in response. Another throat cry, like a faint moan of frustration, drove her to turn in Jensen's direction, almost as if she wanted to blame him for everything that was going on in that apartment. With two rapid strides she positioned herself in front of the agent, staring at him, and in doing so had to tilt her head upwards again, determined to face him without delay.

The ex-SWAT placed the artificial arms covered by the coat along his body, not because he feared that she was intent on attacking him in some way, but because digging into yet another closure, even just physical, didn’t seem to be the right answer. He tilted his face in a nod of waiting, tried to appear even less grumpy despite the shields hiding his gaze.

He was perfectly aware of what that _little girl_ was about to tell him, he had no doubts that she would try to induce him to leave, probably seasoning the whole thing with some colorful insults.

Yet, if he reflected calmly, with that typical and thoughtful care when he saw possible answers between the lines, his intuition and his innate empathy that gave their best show, he found himself focusing his attention on something else, on how Selene had maintained a proud composure even if in total disagreement with the relative and with the intervention of two strangers.

He knew people who would react much worse.

Maybe there was a remote possibility that that girl might change her mind. Or maybe, at the end of the day, without Artair's help, Selene would have been forced to do nothing she threatened to do on her own.

Her blue eyes showed no signs of subsidence or uncertainty. The tattoo of the seahorse furrowed her left cheekbone with soft perfection, a sinuous design that, even if done on her face, absurdly embellished the whole.

It was at that moment that Jensen noticed, thanks to his optics, a slight difference in her alabaster epidermis, at that point of her face, under the black ink. The tattoo had been made over a scar that would otherwise have been evident, a rosier and thicker line than the rest of her fair and smooth skin.

He found himself paradoxically distracted by that detail, something that heightened the bizarre feeling that McTavish had all the legitimate and sincere reasons to keep his niece away from that story.

He could understand Selene, he could understand her point of view in seeing her past so easily exposed to two strangers, but she was a _little girl_ , she was just a little girl.

Who did that scar on her face? How was it possible that a girl so young, because she must have been barely twenty, had been forced to hide the remains of that wound from the world?

She was just a little girl. She wasn't _supposed_ to have anything to do with any kind of violence.

«Selene, it's not necessary...», Artair said, the voice uncertain.

Adam took a quick look at the man, surprised to hear him say something similar in a subtly worried tone. He returned to stare at the girl shortly afterward, finding her still intent on remaining motionless in front of him with that serious expression.

He saw her lift a corner of her lips in a curious smile, spotting with a second's delay the movement of a gloved female hand towards the chest of the augmented man, the coat that allowed a glimpse of that usual portion of the fabric of the black shirt underneath.

Jensen immediately understood that the young woman's aim was by no means to hit him in the belly; on the contrary, her movement was rather delicate, though careless of invading someone's personal space. He blocked that touch by grabbing her wrist in a purely instinctive, rapid and fluid gesture through the readiness of his artificial arm.

His carbon fingers seemed to fuse with the black sleeve of the tactical clothing she wore, only the golden parts of his knuckles and phalanges standing out in the glow of the warm living room light.

That _little girl_ really couldn't believe he'd let her put her palm on his chest, like she had anything to do with anybody. As if she was legitimized to take such a liberty, touch him with impunity as if they shared that kind of confidence.

No one had the right to touch him without his consent. It wasn't something he would have given so easily. Not after what had been done to his body, from Sarif, from Megan, to the year of darkness after the events of Panchaea.

Jensen observed Selene with that obvious grimace on his face, his eyebrows wrinkled just above the shields creating expression lines on his broad forehead. He saw her looking at him in amazement, the blue of the irises that reduced a little to favor the roundness of both pupils, an unusual reaction that had more animal than human connotations.

He was pervaded by a feeling of slight dizziness, at first, he didn't notice it because he had been busier wondering why that _little girl_ was trying to touch him like that — with kindness, almost, and a hint of bizarre curiosity.

It was sudden vertigo, a thrill that in his memory associated more with human sensations now distant, because augmentations had improved many physical capabilities, and at the same time distorted much more.

The sensors of his hands, although avant-garde, couldn’t allow him certain tactile responses, and yet he was overcome by that slight tremor, like a sudden contact, not really wanted but at the same time conveying an unexpected relief.

Selene ajar closed her eyes in a more accommodating smile, lifting her head a little towards him, her expression fascinated. Her gloved fingers flickered in an attempt to advance towards the man's chest, although it seemed more like an involuntary gesture, she had no interest in literally touching him there for real.

It wasn't necessary, not after _hearing_ what Adam had _screamed_ so quietly.

«I think... I think it's the first time I've _heard_ someone like you», she murmured, trying to move her hand but finding it paradoxically held by the man. «You are so... I can't determine where you start and where you end. You are so... You're so _immense..._ »

The ex-SWAT stared at her carefully, finding those words absurd. And absurd was the way she was looking at him, with wonder and genuine discovery.

When Selene brought her arm back next to her hip in slow motion, Jensen inexplicably felt the absence of the small wrist between his fingers, like a lack of energy of short duration, a slight drop in intensity that turned out to be almost annoying.

The young woman squeezed her shoulders, her arms crossed under her breast not to assume a closing pose but to hide an uncontrolled tremor. She still had that reassuring little smile on her lips but she was caught by the expected tiredness with more inclemency than usual.

She knew this would happen to her, but she was willing to see _first-hand_ what that guy was keeping from her. And she regretted it instantly, precisely because she had just _violated_ the personal space of a man who had done nothing wrong literally. And _the little_ she had learned, since she hadn’t been able to go beyond the barriers of the _stranger_ , in no way justified her decision to act so dishonestly.

Not even if she had been able to metaphorically turn him around like a sock and acquire his _story_ completely would have been a good reason to persevere in such bad behavior.

She was deeply sorry. She no longer deserved to make any more claims, she had no right to defend her reasons. She had deprived herself of the freedom to continue on that path with _them_.

«You're on the _hunt_ , too, huh?», she asked the ex-SWAT.

Selene's voice was deliberately lower, her eyebrows of her natural color, a dark brown so in contrast to the purple of her hair, were curved in a sympathetic nod, as if suddenly everything became clearer to her.

«Adam Jensen...», she added shortly afterward, those two words that rolled out of her throat in an equally gentle sigh.

Adam was seized again by a tremor, tilting his head back very little, a faint nod of surprise at just hearing what she had said at the end.

He remembered without any problem when Artair had said his name several minutes earlier, which could explain why the hacker's niece had just used it, but his surname hadn’t been mentioned at any time, and he had taken care to ignore the young woman's curiosity about it while they were in the car.

A part of himself, the one that seemed to whisper in his mind human sensations that, years before, would have been linked to a bizarre need for self-preservation, tickled his thoughts with improbable and absurd possibilities.

The same _possibilities_ that had crushed a police car and knocked out two cops in a comically surreal scene.

McTavish got up from the chair of the momentum, advancing a few steps towards them, a hand a little more raised ready to grab his niece by the arm to guide her away from the agent.

«Selene, stop. It's not necessary», her uncle repeated, _forcing her_ to turn to her side.

Koller had witnessed the scene from the same distance as McTavish, always sitting at the dining room table, but had little insight into what the girl had just done. Although he was beginning to suspect that something extremely incredible had happened.

After a brief sigh, the girl shifted her gaze from her uncle to the agent, giving him a calm look, deprived of the ardor that Adam had seen her until a few moments before, only to return to BlueDevil.

«Don't involve other people to help me. That's not... _Right_.» She silenced for a moment, noticing Vaclav's astonished expression and feeling even more _wrong_. «I can accept the help Janus can give you to find that place, but I will enter that complex in Russia on my own.»

Selene slipped away from McTavish's firm grip, finding herself again in front of Adam after a couple of steps. She glanced at him quickly, a glaring redness on her cheeks and that air of regret that rippled her expression. The female face, at first tilted upward, was slightly recessed between her shoulders in a blatantly insecure gesture.

«Sorry», she said, simply.

She overcame Adam with a mellifluous movement without even touching him, reaching the front door, opening and closing it behind her after exiting on the landing.

Jensen was pretty sure that the hacker, though relatively close, hadn't heard his niece's last word, that sorrow that she had shown him and that seemed to have driven her away in an unmotivated hurry. It was becoming even more obvious what Selene had done when she _touched_ him.

The apartment fell into a sudden silence, so dense as to enclose in a few moments everything that had been said within those four walls. BlueDevil didn't seem to have the strength to explain anything else, his brown eyes low and his hands against his hips.

«It's... Your niece has done... What has your niece done?», Vaclav asked, getting up from the chair and massaging his neck with his red hand.

The jacket covered him and protected him from the cold, giving the appearance that he was even thinner than he already was. His face showed clear signs of fatigue, even though his messy hair deliberately concealed dark circles under the eyes and a couple of expression lines. He remained a few steps away from the table, not quite sure what to say after that question.

Jensen took a quiet look at him before addressing McTavish. «What happened?»

BlueDevil squeezed into his shoulders, responding to his gaze hidden by the shields. «My niece is stubborn, you must have seen it too.»

«No», he interrupted him, lifting a carbon hand to strengthen that single word of his. «I'm referring to what Koller asked too. When your niece touched me...»

Artair bit his lower lip, nodding immediately afterward. He studied the young doctor for a moment and then returned to the agent, breathing deeply before responding. «She tried to figure out who you were. To extrapolate your thoughts, your memories, what drives you to do such things.»

He took a moment to probe the reactions of his guests, watching them make sure they understood what he was saying.

«I told you. The subjects of the Hymeneal Plan had... Selene developed some remarkable abilities, but she doesn't always succeed in taking advantage of the more complicated ones. Using those powers, getting into someone's mind without _getting lost_ , requires extraordinary mental and physical strength, but there are still people who are more or less resilient.»

He pointed to Adam with a wave of his hand, tilting his head to one side.

He pointed to Adam with a wave of his hand, tilting his head to one side.

«You, perhaps because of your augmentations, or perhaps because you're particularly predisposed to... _Protect yourself_ , defend yourself... You didn't let her... You stopped her somehow, but I can't tell you exactly _how_. It's something I'm struggling to understand myself.»

Adam shook his head slightly in turn, rising a little in apparent rigidity.

He wasn't really bothered by what he had already guessed, Selene had apologized to him. Not that it was really enough to put aside the legitimate caution shown by Jensen, but he too had used the advantages of having a social enhancer in his favor in the past two years. The difference was that in his case it was an implant. With Selene, it was something _else entirely_ , and perhaps that was what made him think more.

«What does your niece really want?», the agent asked.

Artair sighed, clutching his shoulders.

«Try to understand her. Her life hasn't been easy. My sister and her husband exposed themselves and sacrificed themselves for her. Selene doesn't want to involve other people for fear they'll be killed. In truth, her not wanting you on the _team_ », he added, quoting that word between the fingers of both hands, «if we can still call it that, it is a direct consequence of what happened to her. She doesn't want anyone else to die to protect her or to help her, and that's what we're arguing about daily.»

The brief silence that followed made the hacker even more serious, his brown eyes glowing with a warm and vivid light.

«But I have to protect her, you understand that, right? _I have to_ do it.»

Adam barely nodded, the meaning of those words that made the whole situation obvious. «And to protect her, would you be willing to send me to that military complex in Russia, to risk my life for something you're not even sure about?»

Artair responded to his glance, impossible to decipher completely because of the dark shields. He could still sense what Jensen was communicating between the lines. «Yes, I'd be willing to do that, even if it's not the first choice I'd like to bet on.»

The ex-SWAT gave him one last quick glance, finally nodding in the direction of Koller. «We better get going, Doc.»

«But Jensen...», the boy began, considering those words probably an obvious sign to end the conversation.

The hacker showed a subtly disappointed expression, his lips contracted in a straight and serious line to avoid adding futility to a speech that seemed to be over.

Adam took a deep breath, placing a hand a little in front of him to draw attention to himself. «You got my infolink, McTavish. Once the data you downloaded from the embassy has been analyzed, I'd prefer to be contacted before Janus.»

BlueDevil made no mystery of all his amazement, his gaze lit up again with enthusiasm, even if obscured shortly after by a thought he expressed in words. «It will be done. And I will try to reason with my niece.»

«Yeah, about that...», Jensen added, moving towards the front door. «I'd also like the details of what happened in France. A sort of report, if you want to call it like that.»

Artair nodded, definitely uplifted. «I can already e-mail you my report tomorrow morning.»

«I'll give you a safe e-address», Adam replied.

He waited for Koller to join him at the main door, taking his fingers to the handle and leaving them there for a few seconds before adding the rest of his thoughts.

«Is Selene's version in your report?»

The hacker squeezed his shoulders, already making it clear what the answer would be. «I can put in what she has told me, the little material she has given me. She doesn't like to talk to me about those moments, let me understand how much danger she was in, all by herself facing turrets and drones ready to shoot at her.»

The ex-SWAT nodded once again, a slightly raised lip angle in a half-smile. «I thought so. Would it be a good idea if I tried to convince her to cooperate only from a theoretical point of view? Nothing practical, of course.»

McTavish burst out laughing briefly, shaking his head. «I'll send you her address, but I advise you not to try it tonight. Selene doesn't really have a bad temper but she wouldn't appreciate being cornered so much.»

«I have my methods of persuasion», the agent pointed out.

Koller, in turn, giggled at that comment, nodding silently. He was perfectly aware of how persuasive his favorite _techno-wunderkind_ could be. It was enough for him to go back with his memory to the question of the Dvalis.

«I don't doubt it, but let the night pass. It would also be a good reason to have a good rest», BlueDevil finally said, a long sigh to ripple his voice. «Vaclav, Adam, good night.»

«We'll be in touch, Artair», the doctor greeted him, waiting for the other augmented man to open the door.

The agent limited himself to a small facial nod in response. When the two found themselves on the landing they noticed that the elevator was still on that floor, a sign that Selene had again preferred to take the stairs.

On the way to the ground floor, in that small room made of steel, metal and glass, Vaclav began to touch his chin dotted with his beard with his red hand. He took one look at the other man, the interrogative expression.

«What did you feel when... When Selene touched you?», he asked, the tone divided between deep curiosity and a poorly effective attempt at being careless.

Adam remained silent for a moment, thinking back on what happened. «Actually, it was me who touched her wrist, to stop her arm.»

The young man waited for a few more moments, annoyingly determined to receive an answer. Jensen sighed, continuing into the stairwell of the small building as soon as the sliding doors opened in front of them.

«Why do you want to know it, Doc?»

«Because when she touched me in the car, I didn't feel anything strange. Maybe she wanted to show you her... Uhm... _Powers_ », the young man advanced, following him at a fast pace to keep up with him.

Jensen puffed, finding ridiculous the way the boy pronounced that last word, with emphasis and at the same time a kind of secrecy.

«What makes you think I had a strange feeling?», he asked, at least, as he went out into the street but stopped to take a look hidden by his shields at the young man.

«The way your body reacted», Vaclav explained, clutching himself in his jacket. «You looked... I don't know... You reacted unusually way...»

The ex-SWAT let slip a grimace, deciding to ignore what he heard. His doctor had been much more observant than expected, perhaps he was beginning to realize that being part of that _world_ was no fun at all.

«We're catching up, Koller. I have somewhere else to be.»

He didn't wait any longer, moving in the opposite direction to the one the boy would have taken: to return to the Překážka district, both of them would have had to go to the nearest metro, to the Monument Station, but Adam didn't feel like walking with anyone.

Going to TF29 was out of questions, although the desire to vent at the firing range was rather overbearing. He would simply reach the station near the Palisade, smoking a cigarette on the way, taken from the package in his pocket and lit it with his zippo lighter.

When he sensed the doctor's footsteps behind him, he simply took one last look at him before returning to the path. It was at that moment that he realized he was passing by Cern-Zlaty's shop, noting the presence in the window of materials suitable for painting. Artair probably stocked up there for his hobby, remembering the easel and the painting next to the windows of his apartment.

That thought made him look a little further away, towards the first visible feet of the Red Light District, following the cloud of smoke that came out of his mouth.

Leaning against a parked car, her arms crossed over her chest, there was Selene intent on observing him, the inscrutable expression, dark shadows that partly concealed her face together with her hair moved by the cold night wind and the tactical dress that still covered her whole body.

The girl shook her head in a brief nod of denial, pushing her hips away from the vehicle, bringing her arms back along her torso and moving away in the direction of the road between the Future-Past Antiky shop and the Lekarna pharmacy.

Jensen had that strange feeling again, the certainty that there was a noble reason beyond the young girl's behavior: she had made sure her uncle was safe and had meanwhile sent a clear message to the augmented man.

The pretty familiar way, for a guy like Adam, to figure out someone was keeping an eye on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The third chapter is gone too.  
> I'm trying to maintain continuity in the updates, one chapter every two weeks, posted on Sunday because it's the day I'm usually freer, but maybe I'll update again in English in a week, since with the Italian version I'm much further ahead (and with that, I don't reach the same number of readers and feedbacks).  
> I don't have any particular notes to add, I simply want to inform you that my chapters are always quite long.  
> Thanks again for being here to read my story.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene gets a visit from a not so unexpected guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Surprise, lovely fandom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gAenGrKHKU)

Prague at night was a disarming beauty, but cruel in all those dark places it could conceal from strangers.

For a short time, a moment in her life that she could no longer even think about because she had learned how to get around in the Czech capital, Selene often found herself in the intolerant part of that place, subtly marginalized and alienated because of her singular appearance.

All those tattoos had sporadically forced her to deal with situations destined for augs, like a paper check perpetrated by some police officer or, a little more rarely, to be stopped by some poor desperate citizen in search of neuropozyne.

She had learned to deal with those episodes in two ways.

With the cops she tended to _vanish_ before their eyes without a trace, precisely because most of the time, especially at the beginning, even showing her _natural_ papers, many officers tended to hold her more than necessary, harassers and bullies.

With the augmented people with rejection syndrome ready to rob a _helpless_ girl, she simply used instead her conversational skills to appease them, but if the _attacker_ 's behavior turned out to be too insistent, she would guide that person to find something else to devote themselves to. She had a great advantage over minds weakened by rejection syndrome, but it wasn’t necessary to violently rage on someone who was already suffering unimaginable pain.

She had visited Překážka only on five occasions during the period when she had been looking for a place to live for herself, evaluating the neighborhood for the cheap prices and because, in reality, living with the augs wasn’t a problem for her. On the contrary, it was a well-thought-out idea, but every time she had set foot there, she was stopped by someone precisely because her appearance suggested that she was weak and helpless.

In the end, she had opted for something else simply by chance; those _accidents_ wouldn’t have stopped her anyway, especially if she had found an apartment that suited her needs.

Although Selene was a bit annoyed in her own way, since before Prague she had never been mistaken for an augmented one, it was always better to live those experiences than to be again the recipient of those looks full of uncertainty and pity that had been addressed to her for years for all the scars on her body.

Part of herself had chosen to cover up those more or less obvious signs to restore some sort of control over her appearance, especially when even her metabolism seemed to sabotage the most natural of a teenager's transition moments. By the time she reached puberty she had experienced another equally _violent_ and rapid change, a legacy of the experiments she had undergone and to which her body had had to adapt.

Over time she had replaced the need to hide those _wounds_ with the simple pleasure of making her skin different, just as she was, in a form of ridiculously obvious self-assertion.

Finding a good tattoo artist took time and a fair amount of credit. The skills of a professional had been necessary not to see the ink lines disappear after a few days if they were done too _deep_. Her regenerative skills had erased small sections of tattoos fortunately on a few occasions, six or seven times and in very small portions that had been taken without excessive surcharges.

The problem would reoccur in the future if she had been injured somewhere in the body covered by black ink patterns: the new skin generated would have been free of previous scars, but the tattoos would have _appeared_ interrupted or incomplete.

She was more annoyed than cheered by such a hypothesis, those images spoke of her and she had every intention of keeping them under her skin. When the work was finished, her body counted more than twenty or so drawings, large and small, scattered among her feet, legs, abdomen, back, shoulders, chest, arms, neck and face.

Filling herself with tattoos was a way to remember her origins, her history, to have always present in memory all that she had seen and lived. Not to forget how fundamental it was for her to preserve and protect the people to whom she was deeply attached.

Like her uncle.

It was for that reason that she had chosen to stay on hold not far from the home of her only relative, despite the night frost torturing her body a bit under her tactical clothing, even though she was able to ignore the feeling of cold, and despite a few drunken customers from the nearby Red Light District trying to annoy her regularly with annoying unwanted comments; someone had also mistaken her for a prostitute, offering her money for sexual services, to which Selene responded with silence and raising a slight caution for any physical harassment.

She had waited with a sort of inadequacy and intolerance, absolutely capable of understanding why Artair had acted so elusive towards her but not entirely willing to give in to his choice. Perhaps it was better to admit, at least to herself, that at a different time, in a different context, she would also have been ready to accept and share her uncle's motivations. Motivations dictated by the same affection that forced her to remain there, like an unwanted guardian.

When she saw the two augmented men coming out the front door, the feeling of relief she had expected to feel didn't manifest itself at all, simply leaving her in a perpetual state of uncertainty.

The younger of the two seemed to be the more helpful and easygoing, and Selene had been sincere when she admitted to remembering him: she had noticed him at Crannóg on several occasions, his appearance certainly didn't go unnoticed, even though there were a fair number of customers at the pub with much more showy grafts.

It was the other _stranger_ who had rekindled and fomented her pride, because the idea of being put aside had made her obnoxiously insecure. It would have been wiser to try to be much more tolerant and helpful, but she really hadn’t been able to avoid such resentment.

She hadn't been able to _read_ that man, except by extrapolating little information and sensations that had left her only more tired than expected and much more inclined to feel guilty for even trying to use her skills to get to _know_ someone in that way.

The effort had cost her an extreme need for rest, as well as experiencing the furious and enthralling feeling of being swallowed up by shame and sorrow.

She had watched the two strangers parting after a brief moment, the younger one heading for the nearby subway station and the other one walking in the opposite direction, with his dark coat tightly closed on his long-lined body and collar raised to protect his neck and the base of his nape.

Selene had followed him for a short time, almost curious to see him light a cigarette with extreme ease, those artificial hands that shone like obsidian. When he took a _hidden_ glance at her, the dark shields that attracted golden flashes from the artificial lights of the street lamps, the young girl was sure that he had sensed her presence.

They had stared at each other for a few moments, a thrill had forced her to shake from her position to move away from the car she was leaning on, dedicating to the augmented man, despite the distance, an expression charged with an obvious message.

A little voice in her head suggested to her that turning her back on him wasn’t the wisest move: she had threatened him in the Bubeneč district, she had arrogantly denigrated him, tried to study him and subjected him to unwanted contact.

Common sense told her that, in his shoes, she wouldn’t hesitate to assert herself at any cost, but when she realized that the man wouldn’t stop her, nor follow her, she felt again that primordial sense of shame, certain of having exaggerated and drawn hasty conclusions.

Her instinct was whispering to her to seriously consider her uncle's request, but the pride inherent in her nature, the constant memory of what had happened to her, prevented her from thinking about it with reasonable control.

She would have gladly done without such absurd pride if the opposite feeling, an unconditional spontaneity and confidence in others, weren’t so difficult for her. She actually felt a desperate need to give in to it, to surrender to that need not to be _really_ alone, especially in the enemy camp.

She would have liked to have been able to devote herself to the thoughts of any twenty-two-year-old girl, without that constant fear of suffering the same pains she had suffered for years, and without the pain of having her wings torn off from that happiness she _knew_ she deserved, destroyed by people who had proclaimed themselves judges and executioners of her condemnations.

There had been a time when she held herself responsible for the evil perpetrated on her and her parents, the evil that continued to surround her, but she had simply learned to live with that dark part of herself, sometimes denying it, sometimes using it to fuel her vigor.

She would have wanted to look in the mirror and feel _really_ safe because she was sure that she had defeated her demons. There was a substantial difference between that kind of peace and feeling protected only because she could only reluctantly welcome those personal _monsters_ , hidden somewhere inside her, waiting to carry out yet another devastation.

Selene let a long sigh slip when she closed the door behind her.

The two windows on her left had the metal shutters down but she had now learned by heart all the details of the courtyard of the Libuše apartment building, the red leaf tree in the middle which concealed the rest of the structure from her home.

Her apartment was number eighty-six, on the second floor; it could be reached more quickly by climbing the stairs to the right from the porticoed entrance, thus avoiding to pass in front of the apartments eighty-four and eighty-five.

The main door gave directly to a large living room, with the kitchen on the right, the furniture and appliances of discreet workmanship, white and metallic steel, provided by the landlord, Havel Cervenka.

On the other side of where Selene was there was a bronze-colored cloth armchair, in the corner under the second window and just next to the door leading to the bedroom, large enough to hold a beautiful double mattress with a black wrought iron headboard on the right wall; on either side of the bed, there were two dark walnut-colored bedside tables, a built-in wardrobe on the left side and a large chest of drawers next to the door. Beneath the other two windows of the apartment, on the left and always facing the courtyard of the apartment building, there was another corner armchair immediately next to the door and a large, long L-shaped desk with a good quality desktop computer, also equipped with a small printer and a free space to work on, a simple ergonomic chair used most often as clothes stand, just like the armchair.

Going past the kitchen area and the sideboards, the four-seater dining table set almost in front of the entrance, there was a sofa bed, also bronze in color, a little more off-center that could open up towards the front wall, on which hung a large television set that Selene used exclusively to watch movies and TV series; just next to the screen she proudly left a bookcase full of books, non-fiction texts and a single shelf filled with old collector's DVDs.

Her acoustic guitar, locked in its black case, had been placed a couple of hours earlier next to the middle armrest in a hurry. When she realized she had to change to quickly reach any part of the city where her uncle was, she didn't have the problem of putting it back in the bedroom, near the desk.

On either side of that part of the living room, there was a small utility room on the right and the bathroom on the left; this one was equipped with both a bathtub and a shower cubicle, and Mr. Cervenka had also left a washing machine and a dryer, as well as everything else.

Since Selene had moved into that apartment, just a couple of weeks after the bombing at Růžička station, she had learned to feel that place more and more likable and familiar, even though it was filled to eighty percent with furniture that didn’t really belong to her.

Separating from Artair's presence, although it was a recent situation, had been the best thing for both of them, because it had avoided continuous and exhausting verbal clashes.

In that place, she had the time and the way to hide her torments, without worrying about her uncle's worried look. After the mission in France, living with BlueDevil had been exhausting.

Up until a few months earlier, they had lived in a rented apartment with two separate bedrooms, but the space they had to share was too small to ignore the need to go elsewhere. Selene wasn’t referring at all to the square meters available in that house, which was actually quite large for both of them and in a relatively quiet neighborhood, less chaotic than that part of Prague.

Having made her decision and found that apartment in the Dávný district, Selene had continued with the move without much delay. Artair had also been _forced_ to move out, so it made no sense for him to stay in a house that was too big for his needs. He was equally lucky, finding a house in the city center, a short walk from the pub and within walking distance of his niece, and with the necessary space in the bedroom to hide a room for his IT activities.

The young lady wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it but she couldn’t avoid it. In the short time that had elapsed, her uncle had been incredibly discreet and willing not to invade her privacy in any way. Perhaps it was because he was actually planning to keep her in the dark about subsequent plans of action.

The mere thought of being kept on the sidelines heightened again the tiredness from which she had been overwhelmed, feeling only the irresistible need to ignore the outside world, to ignore everything that had reduced her to that hateful state of weakness.

That was what she did that night, exhausted from trying to _read_ a person and exhausted from trying to convince her uncle, dragging herself into the bedroom after setting the front door lock by a quick command of the laptop left on the dining table.

She stripped herself of her tactical vest and, deprived even of the strength to take a hot shower, slipped under the covers with only her underwear on, consisting of culottes and cotton sports bra, both dark grey.

In the darkness and silence, uncertain as to whether or not her eyes were open because of the strong feeling of tiredness, she let herself go into oblivion while her mind brought to mind the lyrics of a lullaby sung in Scottish Gaelic by a voice that was no longer that of her mother.

The years had dissipated the familiarity of that feminine tone, once an anchor of salvation, now a simple shade of a distant memory.

In the absurd and improbable possibility of hearing Sheena's voice again, falling asleep with the awareness of no longer being able to recognize her, made Selene deeply melancholic.

She gave her yet another dreamless sleep, in loneliness and fear.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

When Selene woke up, the darkness in the room was still thick and dense.

The metal shutters lowered even in the living room were able to avoid the entrance of any external light source, making the environment of her home intimate and quite silent; nevertheless, the girl could perceive a continuous background sound coming from outside, indicating that the sun must have already been high in the sky for several hours.

She searched for her vu-phone on the nightstand closest to the closet, her naked arm pinched by the fresh air that reacted showing signs of piloerection; not finding it on that shelf, she moved to the other side of the mattress, always staying under the covers, to look for the device on the cabinet between the bed and the other wall. Even in that case, the search was fruitless.

With a sigh, she rubbed her face on the pillow and got up after finding the courage to leave the warmth of the sheets, cursing herself for choosing to fall asleep half-naked.

She reached the living area with her feet protected by a pair of funny fuchsia fabric slippers, unlocking the laptop left on the dining table with a touch to activate the heating; she also started the sound system she had bought from the Music Box shop and selected the opening of the window shutters. She finally glanced at the digital clock in the corner of the screen while daylight flooded much of the large room, the glass doors left closed both there and in the bedroom.

It was just after eleven o'clock in the morning, a sign that she had slept for about seven hours, more than enough time to make her feel rested.

She moved into the kitchen area as Zack Hemsey's "[ _Soothsayer_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXO29bR0oc8)" slowly spread in its initial crescendo. She turned on the coffee pot on the sideboard and moved to the couch, sure that she had left her vu-phone between the cushions.

She unlocked the screen of the device, noting the presence of a message from her uncle sent to her in the middle of the night, while she was outside her relative's apartment but a few seconds before those two strangers came out the door of the small apartment building.

The text was just a few words. " _Are you home? Call me asap._ "

Selene dropped the mobile on the sofa again, knowing that after reading the contents of the message a delivery notification would activate Artair's phone.

She reached the bathroom for a hot shower, ignoring the long ring she heard a few moments later. She had already opened the jet of water on her for a couple of minutes, staying there for as long as she wanted. Her body was pleasantly enveloped by those shivers of warmth that only in that place she could feel, while the music, spread to there, sang words of salvation and despair.

She wrapped herself in an emerald green sponge towel and looked in the mirror above the sink for a few seconds before finishing that short personal routine; she brushed her teeth and combed her hair quickly, wringing out the long purple hair with another towel to reduce the time needed to use the hairdryer.

She was able to look distractedly at the portions of skin left obviously uncovered, the neck, shoulders and the upper part of her arms, taking a quick look at all the tattoos in those places — the seahorse on her left cheekbone, the black dragonfly finely drawn under the ear on the same side, the Horus Eye on the neck, near the right collarbone, the two Noh masks just below the shoulders, depicting a sad face and a happy face, and the beginning of the circular doodles that extended along the entire length of her arms, down to her wrists.

She had many other tattoos on her hands and the rest of her body, but she came back to stare herself in the face for a few moments, probing the luminescence of her sky-blue eyes.

She was no longer able to remember it perfectly, but she knew that she had inherited that vivid tone from Ciaran, along with everything else.

Her father had never had her skills, he was a much more acerbic _version_ of her. He gave her a lot more than just those powers. He had given her something far more important, nothing that could be forced or increased by experiments or other horrible events that Selene linked to her past.

She guarded that _something_ more decisively, a lawful form of ferocity that could be associated with the natural instinct to protect what she held most dear. Because Selene knew how ferocious she could be when cornered, like a caged animal ready to tear anyone apart in a final burst of preservation.

When the young woman returned to the living room, her body still wrapped in the towel, she heard the vu-phone ringing for another message. With a feeling of quiet complacency, she decided to read it, also because she really couldn't ignore her uncle for so long. She found a couple of calls from his number and a preview of the text that had just been sent to her.

" _Don't be a bitch like last night. I gave him your address._ "

That phrase caused her a rather marked feeling of reluctance, leaving her annoyed by the obvious meaning of that request.

She couldn't believe Artair would be so unreasonable. Perhaps it was a subtle form of spite for the way she had replied to him several times the night before. Her uncle could be much more obstinate than she was if the reasons for persisting in such behavior were deeply valid. Probably the desire to protect her was more than important to the relative.

Selene puffed for a moment, leaving her mobile on the couch just before hearing someone knocking at the front door, a vague sense of surprise that quickly acquired a completely different nature.

She approached the door with a quick step, almost intent on opening the door wide, but she simply stopped in front of the still closed passage with a frowning expression and a strong desire to swear with narrow teeth.

«Yes? Who is it?», she said, in a calmer tone of voice than expected.

A brief silence forced her to put a lot of her attention to external sounds, wondering why whoever was there was suddenly remaining silent. She was able to perceive an equally annoyed slight puff, impossible to associate immediately with a face, even though she had some suspicion about it.

«It's Adam Jensen. I need to talk to you.»

Suspect confirmed.

Selene shook her head, the feeling of nervousness that began to breach her mind again, eager to let it out. «I don't.»

Another puff came to her ears, less muffled than before, a sign that even the augmented man was beginning to feel more inclined to respond to her again in an equally indelicate tone. «Look, I don't have time to waste with these childish attitudes.»

The girl didn’t answer, ignoring the comment addressed to her behavior, eager to leave the man outside her door but well aware that she couldn’t do so. Or perhaps she could, yes, perhaps she could. If that individual had tried to pick the lock, she would have literally flown him to the roof of the building.

That brief silence led the other to speak again, accompanied by a bizarre paper noise.

«Can we please talk like two civilized people? Your uncle advised me to stop by the grocery store nearby to take you... I can't even remember their name. They have an unpronounceable name.»

She didn't know why, but Selene brought a hand to her lips to stifle the little giggle that those phrases provoked. And why imagining a heavily augmented man, almost six feet one inch tall and certainly with the same frowning expression she had seen the night before, entering a cafeteria and buying something unwillingly left her much more amused than she needed to be.

She shook her head for a moment, bit her lower lip as she continued to smile well hidden from the door, denied imperceptibly once again and finally surrendered to the evidence that perhaps, _maybe_ , she was the first person to show any reasonableness. At the end of the day the situation couldn’t get any worse, she wouldn’t even allow it.

She led her fingers to the handle, waiting a few moments, and then opened the door quite slowly. The cold outside the apartment hit her with some inclemency, making her shiver.

Adam Jensen stood there in front of the doorway, his eyes covered with dark shields, dressed in the same coat but with clothes obviously different from those of the night before, a robotic hand holding with little conviction a little paper bag containing probably what his uncle had advised him to buy, an unlikely symbol of peace.

«They are called _boruvkové knedlíky_ , they are blueberry dumplings», said Selene, one palm on the wooden door and the other along the side, in contact with the sponge cloth. «They are particular desserts, because the blueberry jam is slightly sour.»

The man shook his head, his face slightly bent towards an imprecise point on his left, on the landing ledge on which was placed a vase of dried flowers. Though he had moved his gaze elsewhere out of lawful modesty, the man was able to record in a few seconds details for which he wasn’t prepared at all.

The young woman had a slightly reddened face, her blue eyes were strangely devoid of any appearance of resentment or spite, her wet hair stuck to her giving her an even more childish appearance, with that bizarre purple that accentuated the pallor of her skin, interrupted drastically by tattoos so evident that he was barely surprised.

He had _forgotten_ that characteristic of her, perceiving, thanks to his smart vision, the presence underneath of scars horribly exposed, at least to him, on her neck, shoulders, a portion of her chest and her legs left uncovered from half of her thighs to the ankle joint, her feet protected by slippers of fuchsia fabric.

He had had the vague suspicion the night before that the covered mark on her cheekbone wasn’t the only one present on the _little girl_ 's body. All those other tattoos concealed a more or less dense weave of skin a little thicker and would have been a rosier complexion.

The sensation of feeling a kind of punch to the stomach was felt more readily. Jensen remembered Artair's words, he remembered what he had said about his niece. The experiments carried out on her had left so many marks, so many scars, that she had to find a way to cover the remains of those wounds.

Part of Adam was deeply upset, intimately upset by something so despicable.

Selene had the feeling that it was her appearance that made him slightly uncomfortable, remembering with a hint of embarrassment that she had just come out of the shower. She stepped aside, leaving the entrance open, with her back to him.

«Come in, give me a second», she said in a low tone.

The man hesitated for a moment, watching Artair's niece squeeze her arms around her chest as she reached the room opposite the entrance, closing the door behind her. When he took his first steps beyond the door, he was surprised by a discreet scent of jasmine and cinnamon, perhaps a trace of the products used by the young woman during her apparently recent shower.

He passed the door completely, closing it behind him, and approached the dining table a few steps away, leaving the paper bag on it and noticing the presence of the activated laptop on a screen of a music program; he had the feeling that the song he could listen to was not particularly recent, definitely older than the musical fashion of that period.

In her room, Selene quickly dressed in comfortable sweatpants and a long-sleeved jersey that was a bit wide and worn out, reaching the living area while dabbing her hair with the wet towel she had covered herself with a few minutes earlier.

Adam had his back to her, his body still protected by his coat; he was facing the window closest to the closed entrance of the apartment, his arms crossed over his chest even as he turned towards her.

The sound system now spread in the environment all other music, the dragged sung by Billy Corgan, vocalist of The Smashing Pumpkins, accompanied by the notes of "[ _The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59g5R8rwqpY)".

They stared at each other for a moment until Selene distractedly pointed to an inaccurate spot in the couch area, holding the green towel in the other hand.

«Sorry, I should dry my hair a little. I won't be long. Give me five minutes.»

She locked herself in the bathroom shortly afterward, the sound of the hairdryer reaching Adam's ears for longer than expected; the noise was slightly muffled by the music played through the loudspeakers posted at the top in strategic points in the room, but that bizarre mix of sounds gave the agent a slight sense of quiet.

He didn’t believe he would find the girl engaged in anything else, even though Artair had, in fact, told him just moments before knocking that Selene insisted on not answering him. He had expected to stay outside the door much longer but, perhaps thanks to the blueberry dumplings or, much more likely, thanks to McTavish's assistance, the young girl no longer seemed to be so prejudiced against him.

She probably needed a good night's sleep, too.

When Selene came out of the bathroom, her purple hair left loose on her shoulders in a somewhat swollen and almost enveloping mass, she quickly moved towards the sideboard to get two cups; she took a quick look at the little paper bag resting on the table, next to the laptop, and decided to retrieve a plate large enough to store the desserts.

She had to stand on her toes to reach the necessary crockery from the top cupboard, which Jensen observed with a feeling of curiosity. He knew several people much shorter than him, but he certainly didn't have the opportunity to observe them in a context so familiar to them.

«Coffee?», she asked, looking at her guest.

The agent waited a moment before answering her. «Yes, thank you.»

He approached the dining table but decided to wait until the young lady had done the same. He watched her empty the bag into a ceramic bowl, arranging the sweets without attention, and then moved the laptop to the nearby shelf, finally lowering the volume of the music to a light inaccurate background.

Selene sat down only at that moment, emulated by the man with a sort of chivalrous courtesy. She took the first _boruvkové knedlíky_ from the pile after having rolled up the paper wrapper, throwing it towards the dustbin with little care but centering it as if it were a daily gesture. When she brought the dish closer to her guest, the man refused with a nod, simply sugaring the dark drink and taking the first sip from the cup offered to him.

«Oh, all for me? Did my uncle advise you to get to my heart through my stomach?», she asked him, doubtful but subtly amused.

She slipped a low chuckle for the words she had just spoken, aware that she could be more equivocal than expected.

Adam ignored the veil of redness that was on her cheeks, wondering whether it was a habit of the young woman to try to test people with similar comments or whether her sentence was said with disarming spontaneity.

The man tilted his head slightly, his gaze hidden by the shields probing the expression of the girl intent on taking a first bite of the little sweet; he watched her gather her legs to her belly with a sigh, her feet on the chair and her slippers on the floor.

«So?», she started it, the voice came back safer.

The man took a moment to decide what to start with after another sip of coffee. «I asked your uncle to explain to me what happened in France. I had a chance to read a report he wrote, but I didn't find enough info about your experience.»

Selene frowned, the careful look. «What do you want to know?»

«What exactly happened?»

«Apart from what I've already told last night?», she asked elusively, warming her voice with the black liquid.

Adam gave her another silent look, tilting his face in her direction. The girl puffed, finding his stubbornness annoying. Dealing with another personality who seemed to be just as persevering could make her days terribly long.

«As I have already said, Artair and I have been studying for several weeks the mapping of that structure, the most common security systems, just a few cameras, and the work shifts of the staff. I entered the storage room after moving like a ghost and followed the instructions I knew by heart.»

The girl finished the dessert with a quiet bite, wiping a corner of her mouth with her thumb, carrying it between her lips and making any traces of food disappear with that gesture.

«I connected the device given to me by my uncle to the central computer, he did what he had to do remotely, and once I finished, I disconnected the chip, put it back in my pocket and left the room.»

She squeezed herself in the shoulders, drinking from the cup again. The man's expression was quite inscrutable but he seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say.

«The problem arose just when the chip was extracted. Artair must have told you about the interference that blocked our direct line. I had disappeared off his radar and was impossible to contact. I didn't think to wait in that room. I didn't want to risk being stuck there. It was at that point that I found myself in deep shit, chased by drones and bots, and with turrets suddenly appearing here and there from the ceiling in every corridor.»

Selene shook her head, puffing at the memory and the unpleasant feeling of having to admit that flaw in their _operation_. It had been impossible to foresee it, yet she was particularly disappointed not to have been able to avoid it.

«We didn't know that such a security system had been set up, not least because over the past two months we have continued to investigate why such arrangements had been made there. But just as we found no trace of any copy of the Hymeneal Plan», and at those two simple words her gaze moved quickly to an inaccurate spot on the wall, returning to Adam after a moment of hesitation, «we found no other sensitive projects. It turned out to be a hole in the water where I nearly _drowned_ anyway.»

Jensen nodded a single time, his head turned to the table for a moment and then returned to her even though his shields were still covering his artificial eyes. «But last night you said the security system was activated due to a search parameter set to locate your... genetic code?»

Selene initially confirmed with a nod, drinking a sip of coffee before answering verbally. «It’s a very plausible assumption, but not entirely confirmed. At least, we haven’t been able to confirm it, but it’s the only one that makes sense. DNA has very precise structures, chromosomes and genes that allow us to understand whether it is human or animal, for example. My genetic code, or in fact the anomalies in it are the only thing that could have given those people a possible clue as to how to find someone like me. Or how to create defenses to neutralize me.»

Jensen understood broadly what the girl was saying. It was a speech that, although said in very simple terms, could give rise to many more questions. He was almost curious to understand how Selene had been changed during those years at Horus Field, but it wasn't a request he would make lightly. He didn't want to give her a reason to withdraw into a hypothetical shell of distrust.

«Yesterday, before the infiltration into the Russian Embassy», began the agent, «I asked your uncle if his hack activities had exposed him to anyone, because he had obviously omitted your more practical role in the matter. He said no, but just yesterday I found out that you were caught in a restricted area, and that that security system was activated because, presumably, there is someone who knows what to look for. Someone who knows, even in broad strokes, about you.»

Selene stared at him for a long time, biting her lower lip in a clear hint of uncertainty.

«I was wearing my tactical dress, my head was totally covered, as were my hands. I left no handprints or other possible traces», she said in a serious voice. «If they caught me on tape, all they have of me is a black indistinct mass whizzing through the corridors of that place. I am extremely fast, much faster than any human being on the planet.»

Adam nodded again, in that case, a little more skeptical. «You're avoiding answering the last part of my ponderation. Are you suggesting I take your word for it?»

The young lady took one look at him, shaking her head a little later. «Well... That's your problem, also because you already know that I don't agree with involving other people. If you're intimidated by this possibility, you're free to wash your hands of it.»

The agent raised a corner of his lips slightly, almost willing to let a half-smile slip by. She stubborn _little girl_. «Don't count on it...»

«Look», she immediately added, «I admit I understand why my uncle turned to third parties. It was a complicated situation for me too, even though I've had experiences... Well... Even more difficult.»

She squeezed herself in the shoulders, pretending carelessness. Minimizing her past as simple "difficult experiences" was more than approximate.

«To risk being shot by an unspecified number of bullets is certainly not nice, but I managed it anyway. All by myself», she pointed out to conclude that part of the discussion.

Adam raised his eyebrows, still feeling the same emotional resistance as the night before. He knew it would come back, but the fact that they were at least talking gave him a few more opportunities to make the situation less drastic. «You might not be so lucky in Russia.»

Selene stared at him with a resentful look, extending one arm on the table, her hand closed but her index finger that seemed to indicate her guest.

«It wasn't luck. You, like my uncle, underestimate my abilities. I'm not augmented, I certainly can't trigger some thermoptical camouflage that makes me invisible and I don't have nanoblades hidden in my arms», and at those words, Jensen was subtly surprised, «but I was born with the... With what made me a lab rat for the first thirteen years of my life.»

The ex-SWAT saw her shake her head, slightly bitter. She was suddenly keeping her blue eyes low on the table, made pensive by what she had said or what she was about to say. There was some sort of sad reluctance between her words.

«And I was trained to fight and exploit my skills, so don't talk about luck when it comes to me.» The young woman tilted her face to stare back at him, her voice slightly more uncertain. «It has nothing to do with luck...»

The agent didn’t need to rely on the CASIE to understand how those last words had been pronounced with a marked note of melancholy and sadness, masterfully mixed with the slight tremor that had hit her breath, the obvious consequence of memories that Artair's niece seemed to suffer without any control.

Selene looked at him again, her cheeks reimported but, in that case, of that obvious corroborating emotion. «I can understand my uncle's fear, but I must be the one to... »

Adam had remained silent to listen to her, well aware of how familiar that _little girl_ was. He too would have been equally reluctant to let strangers intervene in his life and battles. But he interrupted her in yet another attempt to tell him not to get involved.

«Don't you think what happened in France can happen again in Russia? That's why your uncle turned to Janus.»

The young woman made a slight nod, her eyes suddenly filled with curiosity.

«You're of the Collective, uh?», she asked, trying to change the subject of conversation.

The man raised an eyebrow, skeptical of that request. Selene showed a half-smile, finding his physical response almost amusing, that frowning expression which, although broken by the shields, gave her a sense of what he was thinking.

«Hey», the young lady giggled without any fear of teasing him a bit. «It seems the least you can do to answer a question after you know so much about me», she added in a friendly tone.

The ex-SWAT moved the head in a movement that could hint at a negative response. «You tell me.»

The girl squinted slightly, perplexed. «What...»

«Last night you tried to... Uhm... What did your uncle call it?», began the man in an obviously sarcastic voice. «Ah, yes. To _read_ and _analyze_ me.»

Jensen's tone was slightly resentful, but he couldn’t deny that he was subtly curious, especially because Artair's niece had shown that she was aware of some of his grafts: she could only be aware in one way, however still absurd and unlikely he thought it was.

«Oh, _that_ », she muttered, blushing a little. «Well... I was angry and... Surprised. Angry at my uncle for keeping me in the dark about his intentions. To protect me, I know. And surprised because... Well, um... Because of you.»

«Because of me?», he asked, scrutinizing her.

«Surprised by your presence», she promptly specified. «You did what I should have done, which was to infiltrate the embassy. But I wouldn't have let the police catch me.»

Jensen breathed in dryly from his nose, watching her as he tilted his head to one side and let a dull, throaty noise slip out of his mouth. Selene didn't have time to find his reaction funny again, certain that running into a patrol was a rather unpredictable event for her too.

«All right, sorry. I didn't mean to be tactless or rude. I'm honest, I didn't mean to imply that I was surprised by the presence of an augmented man like you, with all your grafts.» She shook her face, once again noticing other's frowns. «I'm not used to surprises. In fact, I hate surprises.»

Adam raised his head slightly towards the ceiling, still visibly inhaling during that brief silence. «I'm not a surprise, trust me. And if I am, it's definitely not one of the good ones.»

Selene took one hand to her right cheek, a light tap to show how much she had gone off course with what she really wanted to say. «Okay, can we pretend that that last part of my rambling speech never came out of my mouth? I feel like I used inappropriate terms.»

Adam couldn't help but lingered on a half-ironic smile, still turning his face away. «Are you afraid you've offended me?»

She took a long look at him, biting her lower lip. «Didn't I?»

«Does it matter?», he asked her, staring back at her, the accommodating, amused tone.

«Yes, if that's what happened.» The girl took a break, finishing her now cold coffee and noticing the man doing the same with his drink. «As much as I don't want other people involved in the aim my uncle and I have set ourselves, that gives me no right to offend you.»

The agent stared at her for a few seconds, genuinely doubtful.

Artair seemed to be right, the niece didn't really have a bad temper. She was a lot nicer and friendlier than expected, especially when he thought about how she had behaved several hours earlier.

«Am I wrong», he began, «or have you completely changed your attitude towards me? What happened?»

The girl raised her fingers in a nod to indicate how unimportant that request really was, as if she wanted to gloss over the matter. Yet she replied after a moment, even though Jensen felt that she wasn't telling him her real motives at all.

«You've brought me candy. That already makes you more... Uhm... friendly. And then my uncle warned me not to act like a bitch, and I'm trying not to. In fact, I'm trying to be diplomatic, because it'll make it easier for you to accept my answer.»

Adam watched her in silence, suspecting her of returning to a stalemate. The hacker's niece knew that what she was about to say might lead the discussion down an unpleasant path. He watched her give him a quick, childish smile and then suddenly returned a little more serious.

«You asked me if there could be a risk that what happened in France would happen again in Russia, and the answer is yes, it is very likely, especially since this time it is an even more protected military building», she admitted, staring at him. «But as I've already said last night, I don't want anyone else to deal with this.»

The agent sighed, taking one hand to his coat pocket to extract the cigarette packet and grasping one between the fingers of the other hand, quickly bringing it to his lips; he retrieved the lighter from the same pocket after putting the paper and plastic wrapper in its place.

«May I?», he asked without really waiting for an answer, inhaling the first puff of smoke and dispersing it in front of him.

Selene let a kind smile slip, rising from her chair. «Yes, but at the window, please. I don't have any ashtrays for you.»

It was she who didn’t wait for an answer at that point, moving towards the wall behind the man to lift the glass door closer to the bedroom; she finally leaned her buttocks against the sill recessed directly into the wall, clearing her voice to urge the other to follow her.

Jensen sighed, reaching for it shortly afterward, shaking the ash with a quick movement of his hand just outside the square opening. Selene watched him bring the cigarette back to his lips, finding herself intrigued by the way the mechanical end moved naturally and perfectly.

The girl raised her right arm with a hesitant movement, capturing the man's attention with her gesture. She advanced slowly with her index and middle fingers up to a few inches from his hand, waiting for some signal from the ex-SWAT to gently grab the paper tube, _stealing_ the cigarette from him for a deep, slow and quiet drag.

Adam had let her complete that action simply because he believed that Selene was willing to touch him again. He saw her smoking almost with caution, a single breath during which she didn’t interrupt eye contact even for a moment. Even though she was silent, the agent had the feeling that she wanted to tell him something.

When she returned the cigarette, Selene smiled briefly. «Apparently, neither of us is willing to give in.»

The man sneered slightly, inhaling a copious amount of nicotine in turn and shaking his head as he exhaled the dense smoke. «Are you sure? I have a feeling you're the one with no other options.»

«Because my uncle is on your side, and without him, I can't do much except risk getting myself killed needlessly. At least if I agree to follow Artair's request, I can keep an eye on you», she said, the arrogant tone rather evident.

«Now you're the one who's sinning conceit, underestimating me», Jensen replied, staring at her seriously.

«I don't want to remind you that the police...», she began to provoke him, a pretentious little smile on her lips.

«I was going to take care of it, you just stepped in earlier», the man interrupted her, still exhaling a big puff of smoke towards the window, looking out the courtyard of the apartment building.

The girl nodded amusedly, giggling at the piquant sensation she could feel from her guest. She raised her hand to ask if she could smoke again, waiting for the man to give in.

Adam peered at her for a few moments, consenting shortly thereafter. The movement was faster and more spontaneous, causing a touch between their fingers of not even a second.

He had expected to feel, not without a hint of fear, that bizarre perception of _contact_ that he had felt the night before, when he had blocked her wrist, but he felt only a response dictated by the sensors of his augmented limb, registering only a slight source of human heat.

He watched the girl inhale a couple of times before returning the cigarette, the smoke that came out of her lips with a long sigh and a hint of a smile in the corners. Her purple hair fell on her shoulders in a swollen mass and some locks were still a little damp. In her haste not to waste any more time in the bathroom, she had probably abandoned the use of the hairdryer sooner than necessary.

«Correct me if I'm wrong», she started, «but you're looking at me like you expect me to do something weird, right?»

The man found the question rather unusual, because it indicated that in some way that _little girl_ was skilled enough to perceive the emotional responses of others: was it a deep empathy, or was it her abilities that made her so sensitive?

«I was thinking about what you tried to do last night», he replied, simply.

«Of course, and this brings me back to the question I asked you earlier», Selene took advantage of it, evading the intrinsic demand in those words. «You haven't told me if you're part of The Collective, but I guess the answer is right under my nose.»

Adam barely puffed, shaking his head as he finished his cigarette, put it out against the window sill outside and threw the cigarette butt over into the courtyard below.

Selene stared at him, amused. «You're a little secretive, uh?», she poked him fearlessly, gently rocking her torso, a thrill that ran down her back as a jet of cold air passed through her hair.

Jensen crossed his arms to his chest in a relaxed gesture, even though he was perfectly aware that he might appear authoritarian or annoyed. That _little girl_ seemed to be able to leave him much more amused than expected, even though he wouldn't show it as easily.

«Let's do it this way», she continued. «I'll let you help my uncle and me, as long as my opinion doesn't get trashed for any reason. I know when someone has the same attitude as I have to work alone, but I won't accept being benched just because Artair is afraid I might get hurt», the young woman pointed out, the serious expression. «Or because maybe you think so by underestimating me.»

The man let out a faint sigh, looking out the window again. «Do you still want to enter the military complex in Russia», commented Jensen, slightly gloomier.

«Four eyes are better than two», replied the young woman, tilting her face with a fake innocent expression.

«My eyes are augmented, so your thesis is rather questionable», the agent added, staring back at the girl. «And as you well guessed, I work alone.»

Selene sneered, amused. «This clause in our agreement is non-negotiable, and trust me, it's the best choice you can make about it, because otherwise, I will do anything to sabotage you and my uncle.»

The ex-SWAT sigh again, exasperated by yet another display of stubbornness. «Artair will disagree.»

«I wouldn't swear to it that much», she giggled, touching one cheek with her fingers to pull away a couple of hairs that tickled the skin on her face. «You've only _known_ my uncle for a few hours. I've known him for less than eight years. My proposal is the most reasonable one. Knowing I am in the _enemy camp_ with a professional, someone trained and ready for action, will make him more willing to let me participate actively.»

Adam and Selene stared for a few moments in silence, him with a frown and her with a smile of victory on her lips. The agent was unable to avoid a slight grimace of disappointment, shaking his head to hide it a little late.

The girl nodded briefly, cheered by the fact that maybe she was really finding an alternative to being sidelined. She continued to be unenthusiastic about the idea of involving a third person, but perhaps she would be able to persuade the augmented man to do other types of tasks and abandon that story over time.

She observed him dedicate to her a last nod of denial, more contemplative than real rejection, and followed his initial move one step back, probably towards the door. There wasn’t much more to say, but she felt a little intrigued by a phrase he had said to her.

«I have one request, however, before you leave», she said, without stopping watching him for a single moment.

Adam gave her a doubtful and questioning expression, trying to guess what she was going to ask him. With a wave of his hand, he invited her to continue.

«Returning to what I did last night», the young lady resumed in a relaxed voice, «I know my attempt to get into your mind was indelicate, unwanted and rather brazen, but I promise not to do it again. I know you have no reason to believe me but I swear that apart from your name and something about your grafts and your interest in the Illuminati, I really couldn't see anything else. But, uh... I'd like to see your eyes.»

Jensen visibly frowned, sincerely surprised by such a request. «What?», he let slip after a moment's hesitation.

The young girl burst out laughing, taking one hand to her lips and tapping the other on her leg in a classic, deeply amused gesture. «Come on, don't make me beg. I know I don't deserve it, but... I'm curious. When I tried to _read_ you last night, I thought I'd see why you keep your lenses on even in the dark. I got so tired trying to...»

The agent took a couple of steps back, crossing his arms to his chest and tilting his head in a skeptical nod. «I didn't ask you to do that.»

«I know, nobody wants something like that», she said with a quiet smile. «But it's not nice that you know so much about me and my family, whereas I can't even know what color your eyes are. I'm just curious, I don't care if they're augmented. They can't be ugly. And trust me, I've seen and dealt with a lot of ugly things.»

Adam shook his head, paradoxically amused by that proposal. And also a little upset by what she had added to try to convince him. «I would have expected anything but as a request from you.»

Selene inclined her face in slow motion, bending slightly towards him. «Do you want me to ask you another question? You wouldn't like to satisfy my other curiosities, I deliberately set myself a limit.»

Jensen remained a long moment in silence, surprised by that sudden speech and the gestures that accompanied it. Was that girl really flirting with him, alluding and with a deliberately malicious nuance in the tone of voice used?

Selene gave him a long look, bowing her face to give him a glance from the bottom upwards; rather eloquent and crafty, especially when she smiled after biting her lower lip.

«Let's do it this way, more exchange», added the young woman after a weak assent movement, crossing her ankles to assume a more relaxed pose while resting on the windowsill, her hands on the edge. «I only considered my uncle's decision because last night, when you saw me for the first time, the only thing you did was to get between me, a possible threat, and Artair», she went on to scrutinize him with a smile. «You wanted to protect him, protect a total stranger, as far as you were concerned. That's why I was surprised by your presence. In fact, I'm surprised even now, unbelieving that you might actually want to help him. Or help us.»

Adam was stunned enough to keep that silence longer than expected. He had to admit that he was a little caught off guard, first by that tone and those clearly allusive words, and then by that sudden and unexpected surge of sincerity. Because even the CASIE confirmed his thought: Selene had been incredibly honest.

With a brief sigh, more dictated by the urge to break that incredibly new eye contact, he made the dark shields go inactive, let only that black commas at the sides of his eyes.

Selene instantly stopped looking at him with an amused expression and instead observed him with gentle attention.

She discovered an incredible color, artificial beyond any doubt but singular: there was a predominance of green but the golden circles she could observe made her lips open slightly in a gesture of amazement and then smile in genuine response, without any trace of malice or provocation.

«Thank you», she said, nodding again.

She moved away from the window to return to the dining table, freeing it from the two empty cups and placing the plate with the sweets on the shelf next to the refrigerator. She turned again towards the man, leaning with her buttocks on the sideboard, her hands on it, her arms slightly bent back.

«If you need me, you know where to find me», concluded the young lady, making him understand that it wasn’t necessary to go on with other speeches.

Adam observed her for a moment, the shields back in place. He moved after a quick silent greeting to the door behind him, quickly opening it to reach the landing and closing the door behind him with a deaf thud.

The ex-SWAT shook his head, the need to smoke another cigarette pressing down the bottom of his throat. He gave in to the silent demand of his now harmless vice by retrieving packet and lighter from his pocket, taking the filter to his lips and lighting the other end. He walked to his left to descend the nearby stairs, continuing towards the street and heading to Pilgrim Station to return home.

He decided to update Artair with a quick call via the infolink, stopping in front of the descending stairs, above his head the suspended structure of red and blue pills with the words " _Versalife_ " visible in some places.

«McTavish, I just left your niece's apartment.»

Lingering for a cigarette and meanwhile having a subvocal conversation lightened the load of his paranoid thoughts, fearful as ever of being watched by someone.

« _Okay, I hope she didn't piss you off any more than expected_ », the hacker's voice came in response, a little curious.

«No, in fact, I have to say she's been quite cooperative, even though she claims to enter the facility in Russia with me.» He took advantage of the pause to listen to the other's response and to inhale a copious puff of nicotine.

BlueDevil sighed loudly, a brief silence just before continuing. « _I thought so. Well, uh... Better than nothing._ »

«I disagree», added the agent, exhaling the smoke into a rapidly dispersing cloud.

« _I figured that too, but... We'll see. Maybe it might be a good idea for you to cooperate in the field. My niece can help, as long as she doesn't feel left out or underestimated._ »

«Your niece, if she takes a bullet she won't help me. In fact, she might slow me down», Jensen replied in a serious tone. He was definitely surprised to see how much the girl had anticipated that change in her relative's intentions.

Artair burst out laughing, quenching his hilarity rather quickly after perceiving legitimate skepticism in the other's verse of disappointment. « _Don't make the mistake of underestimating Selene, or you'll regret it. I've been doing it for years after... After I found her again, which complicated things a bit at first._ »

Adam didn't respond to those words, inhaling a couple of puffs. He was really enough to listen to such condescension, probably dictated by Artair's affection for his sister's daughter.

« _Anyway, I'm still studying the data from last night. As soon as I have something, I'll contact you._ » The hacker paused, adding a rather unusual proposal shortly afterward. « _If you feel like it, and if you have nothing better to do, why don't you come at Crannóg tonight? Remember that for you and Vaclav there's always special consideration._ »

The agent found himself pleasantly lured by the prospect but not entirely convinced. «You should stock your pub with a very specific whiskey if you want me to become a regular.»

« _Really? Which one?_ », asked Artair, amused.

«Rusterini&Moorks», advanced the man, a feeling of lightness to flood his chest for that unusually friendly dialogue.

McTavish giggled for a few moments, surprised. « _Are you sure you have no Scottish ancestry? It's a whiskey I order directly from my country but it's not very popular with the pub customers. Come tonight and I'll have a bottle to take home with you, as well as the one you can drink at the bar._ » He took another break. « _But my niece might be playing again._ »

«What might that entail?», asked the ex-SWAT, frankly puzzled.

« _Other than the fact that she can still act like a bitch?_ »

Adam rolled his eyes between himself, in a purely personal gesture. «A little girl's impertinence doesn't kill me, Artair. If Selene wants a metaphorical confrontation, she'll be rather disappointed.»

BlueDevil let one last laugh slip, the relaxed tone. « _Well... If you keep calling her "little girl", you're bound to expect some annoying comments. Have a nice day, Jensen._ »

«You too, McTavish.»

Adam lingered a thoughtful moment, finishing his cigarette and throwing the butt on the ground, stepping on it shortly after to put it out.

When he climbed the stairs of the Capek Fountain Station, he found himself wrapped in a light autumn rain. He walked up to the Zeleň apartments, still noticing how the presence of the state police was quite predominant in the Překážka district.

Finally in his apartment, he got rid of his coat at the entrance and went to the kitchen to serve himself another cup of freshly brewed coffee. He took a look at the central counter, aware that he had computer work to do.

He merely listlessly resumed yet another digital task that he had already postponed several times, eating something ready during lunch so as not to waste much time cooking and continuing through the afternoon. He was willing to keep working even after dinner, someone at TF29 would also have been surprised.

Deciding to go out wasn't really something he was considering. Absolutely. Why would he leave the quiet of his apartment to go somewhere? Did he want to take a walk to clear his head? A walk to where?

Jensen lowered the laptop screen with a single hand movement, sighing.

That bizarre curiosity peeped into his thoughts again, the same curiosity that, not without a hint of obvious awareness, had pushed him so quickly to collaborate with the two Scots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, guys. When I posted the 3rd chapter I told myself that maybe I would replace the publication of a new chapter in Italian with a new chapter in English, but if you follow me on Tumblr you know what happened to me last week.  
> My SSD containing the operating system of my laptop broke down, also corrupting a section of another HDD I use in the same device. Luckily my boyfriend gave me one of his SSDs and recovered all the contents of my computer.  
> And in the end, I performed the miracle too, because I translated and edited all the text just today. I'm so tired, but I wanted to do it. And I'm also going to post a new chapter in English this Sunday.
> 
> But back to this story, if you want to get a much better idea of Selene's apartment, you really only need to go with Adam to the apartment building where Nomad Stanek and Tommy Gunn live. If you've visited all the houses there, you're sure to have also found the apartment in full renovation at number 86.  
> I've hypothesized that the events of Mankind Divided take place in October 2029, maybe closer to the second decade of October, also because of the cold that some characters complain about in the game during the evening parts of the adventure (but if you pay attention to the Time Machine there are some exhibition posters that report the month of August, but in my opinion it's more a way to point out how messy Koller is).  
> I admit I monitored last year the temperatures in Prague after the summer and actually in October it could still be hot but... Give me this poetic license: it takes several weeks to finish fixing up an apartment and to formalize a move.  
> Maybe it doesn't really add up in history, but... Grant me this poetic license.
> 
> Ah, you have no idea how many times I've fantasized about Adam saying that sentence quite similar to... Yes, if you've been paying attention, you know which one I mean.  
> "My eyes are augmented."  
> Something similar to the sentence said by JC Denton but adapted to Adam's situation.  
> I had to do it. I LOVE putting quotes here and there from every fandom I crawl into, so expect many more.
> 
> See ya this Sunday.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam is more interested in the story of Artair and Selene, and finds more personal reasons to help them.

Completing the paperwork for the TF29 was an activity that could have engaged Jensen continuously for at least another four days, taking only fifteen minutes for lunch and dinner, and about six hours to sleep.

He had procrastinated so long that, as usual, he had more reports to make, with MacReady who had set himself the goal of making him nervous about his umpteenth delay until a few days before that deserved break from work with Interpol.

It was obvious that Duncan's attitude was a direct consequence of when Adam had confronted him a few days before London. He admitted that he had forced his hand a little with his supervisor, but for a moment he believed that speaking clearly and being equally _indomitable_ would be a good way to earn a kind of truce with MacReady. Actually, the truce was only out of respect for Miller and his recent recovery.

After Marchenko's arrest, and after the conversation with Dr. Auzenne about his first mission with the US TF29 headquarters, the days at Interpol had dragged on until Adam was literally forced home to get some healthy rest. He had even enjoyed the first two days particularly, busy doing nothing productive in his apartment, but Janus' call had definitely changed his plans for the week.

While he was on his laptop checking some of the Task Force's documents, he soon realized he wanted to further study everything about Horus Field and the Hymeneal Plan.

Artair McTavish had given him all the information the agent had requested, as well as the report on what had happened in France to the two Scots. Certain details in the data he had received summarily described some simplified papers of the experiments carried out on Selene.

The cold and schematic words on those pages clashed with what had been written by the hacker, in which a much simpler approach had been written by the hacker, with the easiest way to understand all that info.

The agent could only imagine how difficult it had been for BlueDevil to find out what had happened to the girl in that company's lab: while the young girl avoided talking about it, those reports were enough to get a complete picture of what had been done to her.

Jensen looked at the time on the computer, his artificial eyes glowing in the light of the screen; he was surprised to see how many hours he had been absorbed and focused on his research and insights, eating only a sandwich for dinner several hours earlier.

He sighed reluctantly, rising from the stool moved in front of the PC and reaching the table on his right after a moment. The bottle of his favorite whiskey was almost empty, just a few drops on the dark green glass bottom.

A part of himself definitely wanted to drink, fill a glass or two while he continued to study the information that had caused him some discomfort on numerous occasions.

He shook his head with a slow movement, reaching the bathroom to rinse his face, looking himself shortly afterward to the reflection of the window above the sink for a few moments.

He could return to Task Force 29 to spend the night at the firing range, a rather efficient way to empty his mind and not think about anything else, but observing his face barely visible in the glass, focusing for a few moments on the black commas on the sides of his eyes, brought to mind, in a sudden flash, the seahorse tattoo on Selene's cheekbone.

So young, yet so aware of the cruelty of the world. A bit like he had been when he joined the police, and as he continued to be, especially after the events of two years before.

It was hard not to feel that empathy tickling his thoughts, wondering what he could have done to really improve the situation of the two Scots, but he knew very well how certain wounds always remained open in a person's soul, despite the passage of time. One only learned to live with them in the most dignified way possible.

The ex-SWAT took another long look, the artificial irises that shone dimly in the reflection, before tapping his hands lightly on the ceramic rim of the washbasin, causing a faint tinkling.

He turned to leave the bathroom to reach the bedroom. The HUD was at 1:12 a.m., the darkness beyond the windows with the sashes offset by a few inches indicated that it was night.

The indecision lasted only for a moment: he got rid of the sweatpants he used to wear at home and wore the familiar dark clothes, with the usual boots. He retrieved his coat at the entrance, closed the apartment door behind him and activated the maglock on the left.

The rain that had caught him after he arrived in the Překážka district had turned into a stronger storm. He tightened his coat collar better around his neck and just walked, knowing that on the way to the metro he would get very wet.

When he arrived at Crannóg he hadn’t expected to find it open, even though he had intimately hoped for it. If it was closed, he would have reached TF29, _to hell_ with the obligation to take a few days off.

He walked through the open door while the hall was deliberately left a little more in the dark, unlike the stage, which was instead well lit with warm lights, arranged towards specific points so as not to disturb the two people on the raised area.

Almost all the customers were standing under the stage; Jensen took the opportunity to move slowly to the counter, finding Artair on the inside of the counter and Vaclav sitting on the stool closest to the back door. The two only saw him when he took his turn, a nod to greet the doctor and the hacker.

BlueDevil gave him a friendly smile, quickly retrieving a bottle from the row of alcohol behind him, approaching him with two glasses in the other free hand. Koller stood up to sit up with a careful expression to observe the area of the stage, even though he occasionally pretended to be more interested in his vu-phone.

Already from the first sip, Adam recognized the familiarity of Scottish whiskey, the strong and dry taste that exploded in his palate and slipped into a particularly intense heat throughout the esophagus.

When the notes of Selene's guitar spread through the room, accompanied from the very beginning by her musical partner playing the keyboard, Adam bent his head towards her, watching her while she sat slightly on the stool left available. The dark shields, even though they concealed his artificial eyes, left no doubt as to who was watching.

The silent sigh of the augmented man was filled with another sip of the alcohol, looking for a moment at the ceiling.

He wasn't sure what piece of music he was listening to, he wasn't sure at all about it, but he was definitely surprised to notice, a bit late, that almost all the lyrics heard through Selene were in English.

In Prague, many people spoke and understood his language, but from an artistic point of view he had mostly seen performances and shows in Czech, and he found himself even more deprived of the sporadic interest he had developed many years before for plays or other similar events.

An interest that was born along with the relationship with a certain woman of his life.

Jensen took a sip much longer of the whiskey, almost to the point of finishing it. Although he didn't see it, he caught the curious glance of Artair, who did his best to take the bottle of Rusterini&Moorks and put it closer to both.

He was legitimately tempted to consider McTavish a _holy man_ just for that shrewdness.

Selene wore a short dress with wide suspenders that left the body exposed in her arms, shoulders and neckline, the tattoos as animated and crawling on her skin, the dark tights that made everyone see even those on her legs, the feet protected by black boots.

Despite the distance, Adam could see her face shining with a patina of sweat, her purple hair gathered in a high ponytail; eyeliner and mascara, placed hours earlier on her eyes in that marked aesthetic embellishment, were slightly drooled and gave her a slightly more adult look, horribly _wrong_ for a little girl of her age.

The first words of the text were enough to animate the people present, some already ready to give the two musicians a couple of applause and some shouts of appreciation.

Adam lifted his head, his expression imperturbable and his mind totally focused on the meaning of that song.

In a world so cold, Jensen felt much closer than expected to the text he was listening to. Words of hopelessness, sad desolation, desperate search for meaning to explain why there should be such suffering, the destruction of a society taken to extremes, sick and not ready to heal. Almost more convinced that letting oneself die amid plagues and misery was the prerogative of an idyllic paradise.

It was almost taken for granted that Selene would sing something like that, yet Jensen couldn't help thinking that the most legitimate of all in there was her, screaming at the world why her story was so devastating.

The fire of justice that once animated him had been enlivened by the flames of vengeance, he was perfectly aware of it, but after the events of Panchaea, he was willing to give in to a struggle guided by more important choices.

Selene's _fire_ seemed to be completely different, and the man feared that he already knew what it was. He knew well how thin the line between taking revenge for the evil he had suffered and being an advocate of merciless cruelty was.

He wasn’t absolutely sure what Selene was really capable of, but he could suppose that, yes, a person like her, young, unprepared, perhaps too emotional, could take a totally wrong path.

Perhaps Artair's presence had spared her from ending up in the hands of people willing to do anything to use her skills. Perhaps men like Artair were as close to salvation and hope as there could be for mankind.

Jensen sensed Koller moving on the stool, his gaze enraptured by the performance, while BlueDevil merely watched his niece with an unclear expression, almost intact the amount of liquor in his glass.

Selene sang with her face slightly tilted upwards, a metaphorical way to make the meaning of the song even stronger. Adam saw her get up from the stool, moving it with a foot of a few inches to move with more ease, holding the guitar in her hand with renewed energy. He watched her come alive with a scenic furor, playing as if her life depended on it, shaking her head in a continuous nod to accompany the words spoken into the microphone, her gaze turned to her small audience gathered and kidnapped beneath her.

The night before he hadn’t been able to witness that kind of ardor, it was not even certain that the young woman had sung something as vigorous and similar to her story.

He wondered for a moment which version of her was the real one, whether she was the one she was showing at that moment to others, with that sense of wounded beast, or whether she was the one glimpsed at home, kind and open to dialogue.

The _alpha_ or the _omega_?

Could she really be the perfect symbiosis of both personalities?

Adam knew well that he was an _alpha_ , Koller was easily traceable in _beta_ , and the same could be said of Artair, although with more mature characteristics. Elements like _omegas_ could be quite unpredictable and difficult to deal with. Or to manage in a fieldwork team.

That reflection was as close to a slight concern as the ex-SWAT could grasp. In all sincerity, he was trying not to really think about the possibility of infiltrating a surveilled place with Selene. He was already choosing not to even consider it. It was an idea so unlikely that he didn't want to consider it at all.

When the song ended, a burst of sudden applause led Jensen to settle down better on his stool and finish the whiskey in his glass, trying to ignore those people who were too noisy for his taste.

Selene smiled openly, her blue eyes lit up with enthusiasm and satisfaction. She turned shortly afterward towards her musical partner, approaching him with a raised hand to receive a gesture of complicity in response, holding the guitar still hooked through the black strap.

When the customers began to disperse as the lights came back to fully illuminate the room, Adam realized he had heard probably the last song of the evening. He took one look at the hacker and his doctor from beyond the shields, arching an eyebrow to respond to BlueDevil's initially silent gaze.

«I thought you weren't coming anymore. What changed your mind?», McTavish asked.

The agent raised the empty glass. «Everyone has their soft spots.»

Artair dedicated a half-smile to him, quickly retrieving the bottle left close by, opening it, and pouring a copious amount of Rusterini&Moorks to the agent.

Vaclav giggled in turn, suggesting that he had heard the brief exchange between the two.

«Tell me about it...», he commented distractedly with his typical accent.

Artair observed the young doctor with obvious curiosity, following the invisible line from Koller's face to the stage area. Jensen saw it all, the unconvinced smile that the hacker turned to the boy, placing the bottle on the bottom of the counter with a certain vehemence, taking care not to break it.

He gave a rather intense pat between the shoulder blades of the closest augmented man, the tone midway between hilarity and ill-concealed sarcasm. «Did you ask her number yet?»

Vaclav was taken aback by both the question and the muffled pat he received on his shoulders, the cocktail glass that jingled just between his mechanical fingers.

«To whom?», he did, staring at the hacker with a subtly bewildered expression.

«To my niece», McTavish added with a big smile. And a brownish look that seemed to suggest anything but male camaraderie.

«No, of course not. But, uh... Why?», Koller continued. «Should I ask her?»

Adam had to admit to himself that the presence of the shields allowed him not to expose his thoughts openly. He was far more amused than permissible by BlueDevil's reaction and his doctor's absurd naivety. It was not materially possible that Vaclav hadn’t understood what the other was actually saying.

« _Suuure_ », replied Artair, raising his hand again for another pat, in that case on the nearest shoulder. An equally powerful pat.

«Really?», Koller dared, the expression a little confused.

«No, Vaclav», said McTavish, much more serious. «Are you thinking of asking my niece out? Because if you are, I warn you...»

«I would never dare», the boy immediately began, moving his hands in front of him in a clear nod of defense. «Mine is simple musical appreciation. Live performances are now a rare commodity, especially well-made ones. Besides, I like older women.» He paused, drinking what was left of his watered-down cocktail. «Honestly Selene gives me the impression that she could tear my head off with a single glance: I appreciate personalities more akin to my quiet nature.»

The hacker raised his eyebrows, surprised but also ready to let slip a curious smile on his lips. Adam tilted his head perplexingly, his eyes protected by his shields continued to be a good gimmick for not being actively questioned in the discussion. The chatting was not particularly his aim for that night.

«It's paradoxical», McTavish added, returning to drink from his glass, «but, trust me, my niece might find your words extremely pleasing: she likes people who aren’t afraid to say things to her face, no matter how unusual or offensive they may seem. In all honesty, I've only seen Selene offended by a few comments twice since I've known her.»

The Crannóg had almost emptied itself completely, just a dozen or so customers divided among those who were finishing their drinks, sitting at tables away from the counter, and among a few others who were intent on paying what they owed.

Adam had expected to see Selene approaching, he was quite sure that by now his presence was visible to her; turning towards the back of the room, he found the stage completely empty, only the professional keyboard left there, in the widest part of that raised floor.

He spotted her and the keyboardist a few steps from the entrance, almost behind him. They were intent on greeting each other with wide smiles, phrases he couldn't hear, gentle pats on the shoulders by the man and weak pats closer to the elbow by the girl, in that obvious difference in height between the two.

When the man also waved his hand in the direction of the counter to presumably greet Artair, Selene was equally quick to turn around. She had worn a plum-colored cotton duster, long over the edge of the dress she was wearing underneath. She held the guitar case for the smaller neck in a horizontal position.

Jensen felt that there was no point in avoiding her blue look at the time, although he was surprised to notice a more cautious look in her than necessary. Perhaps she was not particularly enthusiastic about the idea that he was there too.

The girl walked in their direction after a final word to the keyboardist, considering for a moment whether or not to sit down. The two augmented men had settled down on the only stools on the side of the counter. Sitting on the next one meant taking a seat next to the man who had shown up at his house that very morning.

She chose not to think about it and to act as if the dialogue undertaken with Adam several hours earlier hadn’t yet blurred into her thoughts. She knew very well that the risk of being sidelined was much more real than expected, she did not want to give her uncle any more reasons to lecture her and exclude her from their aim.

She placed the case to her right, a curious look at the relative led her to speak directly to him. «Innkeeper, what do you recommend?»

McTavish gave her a skeptical expression, pointing to an inaccurate spot on the other side of the counter — the small sink there for quickly washing glasses and other objects. «For you, water.»

Vaclav burst out laughing loudly, giving the hacker reason to gloat openly about his response. Even Adam had to admit again that he found that initial exchange between the two Scots rather funny, although he was much better at hiding it. It was a very difficult task, especially with the piquant face that the young woman made no secret of showing.

McTavish, however, hadn’t foreseen the reaction of Selene who, in an unthinking momentum, took the trouble to take away the glass of whiskey left on the counter, bringing the drink to her lips to drink a copious sip. He could only show himself surprised by the gesture, only to burst out laughing at the sight of his niece who twisted her nose and started coughing at what she had just tasted. And Vaclav was no less in exposing the same fun.

That was a good time for Jensen to start drinking again. Or he would have really laughed at the scene of the two of them bickering like kids.

He hadn't observed such a family relationship for years, something connected to the warmth he felt whenever his mind lingered on memories, on those pleasant and tender days he spent with his parents.

A month from now it would have been Christmas, maybe you should have considered going back to America for the holidays. Maybe he would have called his father the next day and asked him if it was possible. And only informed his mother after he'd talked to Arthur about it, just to avoid probable discontent for her.

Or perhaps he should have simply waited for that desire for inclusion and family affection to fade away from the simple prospect that he couldn’t grant himself such freedom, not with that latent paranoia ready to devastate him. Not with the certainty that he could somehow endanger his parents.

He hated that he had to limit himself for that reason. It was something that had the power to alienate him from everything and everyone. Something that made him regret having chosen to go out that night and be a spectator of that terribly sincere and longed-for picture.

The Crannóg completely emptied of the customers, the main door closed about twenty minutes after the last client left and only the two senior bartenders engaged in arranging and organizing the inventory. The public toilets had also been cleaned and closed, leaving only the one at the back, the access in front of the door leading to the studio.

It was Artair himself who invited Koller to use it, the journey to the doctor's house included a rather icy ride outside the metro. Once the boy was left in the hallway, McTavish moved shortly thereafter to the cash register to check the nearby log, a quick look at his niece and Jensen.

The two hadn't even spoken for a moment, but honestly, the hacker hoped that in those brief minutes of solitude his niece wouldn't jump down the agent's throat for some absurd reason. He knew she was upset, but Selene was deliberately ignoring the ex-SWAT.

If it had been immature behavior the night before, it seemed wise in that case.

They were actually ignoring each other.

Perhaps, more than wise, it was a choice dictated by obstinacy.

Selene remained on the stool with a simple soda can in her hands, definitely in need of bettering the terrible taste she had had in her palate because of the whiskey stolen from her uncle.

At the same time, Adam remained with his gaze on the glass, the last two fingers of whiskey turned counterclockwise in slow contemplation. When, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl lift herself on her footrests to sit directly on the counter, turning her back to her relative and almost completely turned towards him, he expected to be _annoyed_ by the young lady with some witty comments.

Instead, in a completely unpredictable way, Selene retrieved the case to open it quickly and put her hand on the musical instrument, resting one foot on the stool on which she had been sitting and crossing the other leg to have a more comfortable grip on the guitar.

She didn't need to tune it, she simply glanced at her distant relative a couple of feet behind her and ignored the obvious position of his closed fists against his hips, in a clear nod of reproach for standing there.

She exhaled deeply, returning to look before her, only Jensen a direct spectator of her face unexpectedly contracted into a hint of nervousness. She was no longer so convinced that she was doing it in front of him, not while the man watched her with subtle curiosity, as if he did not want her to understand that he was equally expectant.

The strumming notes spread with less intensity than when the sound system improved the sound and spread the music to every corner of the room, but the silence in the pub was so thick that everyone could hear the melancholy melody spreading with care.

It served to calm her down, to find that naturalness with which she sang in front of a slightly larger audience. And it was to remind her of the first song she learned thanks to a man who was too far away from her.

It was an instinctive decision, as if it were her fingers sliding on the strings with precise perfection, independently giving her something to sing. Before her mind, it was her hands that chose what to yield to.

_I walk[through the valley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSoLOSdLEM) of the shadow of death_   
_And I'll fear no evil because I'm blind to it all..._   
_And my mind, my gun, they comfort me_   
_Because I know, I'll kill my enemies when they come_

Selene sang with a slightly lower intonation, stretching the words to accompany those voids that she couldn't handle with the guitar alone. She kept her eyes closed gently, but if she shifted her eyelids a little, she simply followed her movements on the musical instrument.

_Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life_   
_And I will dwell on this earth forevermore_   
_Said I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul_   
_But I can't walk on the path of the right because I'm wrong_

It was at that moment that Vaclav returned to the main hall from the corridor, almost in a hurry, precisely because he had heard Selene singing while he had been a few feet from the door. It was definitely something you didn't want to miss, but he still listened to her some steps away from the counter.

McTavish had stopped by any action at the checkout, a bit like the bartenders who had moved to a better spot to follow that short, private performance from a distance.

_I walk through the valley of the shadow of death_   
_And I'll fear no evil because I'm blind to it all..._   
_And my mind, my gun, they comfort me_   
_Because I know, I'll kill my enemies when they come_

Adam still had the whiskey glass in his hands but it was almost impossible for him to look away from the young lady.

He had had several opportunities in his life to be very close to a man or a woman who was playing and singing, he had never really been totally unacquainted with that kind of context, and yet, at that very moment, he just couldn't stop looking at the way she was showing so much of herself.

And suddenly he had an answer to his question, and, _yes_ , Selene was the perfect symbiosis between _alpha_ and _omega_. A wounded beast still capable of being kind.

_Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life_   
_And I will dwell on this earth forevermore_   
_Said I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul_   
_But I can't walk on the path of the right because I'm wrong_   
_But I can't walk on the path of the right because I'm wrong_

Jensen only realized she held her breath when the girl moved her fingers in that last vibrating note. He dissolved his immobility with a shrug of his shoulders, observing the amber liquid in his glass squeezed in his carbon hand.

He took a quick look at the doctor on his left before drinking what was left of the whiskey, his _alien_ gaze well hidden by the shields, noticing Artair getting closer to his niece.

He watched the two make some quick comments, a brief exchange of jokes between the hacker who told her to get off the counter and his niece who challenged him, threatening to stand directly on the shelf with her shoes on.

The little smile finally escaped Adam without any control. Perhaps, after all, he was more than determined to really find a way to help those two, the bizarre intent to preserve that sense of family he was giving up.

At least Artair and Selene's family could be protected without putting anyone else in danger.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

The Crannóg was closed on weekday evenings on Sundays and Mondays, but Artair McTavish, during those forty-eight hours, tried to carry out all those commitments that concerned the club, updating the records with the income earned, with the payment of management expenses and with the salaries of the bartenders and Řehoř Simek, the man who accompanied his niece during musical performances.

Řehoř was fifty-one years old, born and raised in Prague, married to Hélèn Cheraz, a black woman of French nationality who had moved to the capital of the Czech Republic to be with the person she loved. They had an eleven-year-old daughter, Nela Simek, with whom Selene had developed a special relationship of affection, despite the little time they could spend together.

BlueDevil only imagined how much relief she could get from hanging out with ordinary, normal people who didn't remind her of her life, people with whom she could relax just enough to minimize her defenses and spend several hours with the carefreeness that her uncle would have wanted her to have.

Selene had never demanded money to be able to sing and play on the pub stage, with the only request to have free choice on the proposed lyrics, but the hacker had always ignored his niece's decision not to want credit. He regularly paid her an adequate amount directly into her bank account; it was also thanks to her that Crannóg continued to have paying customers.

The girl had never questioned him about it, but he knew she was no fool, and she controlled her finances meticulously. If she found extra money, it was obvious that she would also read the name of the person who had credited her with it.

It made him feel good to know that, somehow, she still needed him to meet her expenses, to live her life with dignity. Maybe for Selene, it wasn't something that gave her relief or a sense of pride, but with Artair it would always be like that: either she accepted the way her uncle cared for her, or they would continue to fight until the end of their days.

The hacker slipped a hand through his hair, the accounting tomes on the dining table while keeping an eye on the vu-phone to check for updates on the main computer. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when he received the audible notification to the device; he had finished his job as manager of the club on that dreary Sunday and was doing some domestic chores that he had ignored for more important matters.

He reached the bedroom with a quick step, moved the large mirror away from the wall after deactivating the steel hinges block and passed into the hidden room to reach the position of his second unofficial _job_.

It was a small windowless room, with a state-of-the-art computer console and several screens arranged along the front wall. It had small well-protected servers on the right side and some shelves on the left, a simple ergonomic chair in front of the main keyboard.

The data obtained through the Russian Embassy had been fully decrypted. Thanks to the specific requests entered by Artair, the information collected gave as a point of interest a military structure located in the region of Yakut-Sakha, about sixty miles south of Verkhoyansk, a town in eastern Siberia.

With a couple of researches in the network he already had enough information about the area, mainly environmental and cultural, but to establish an action plan he had to know many more details.

He contacted Jensen to inform him of this, the call made directly through the computer. «Adam, am I bothering you?»

« _No, tell me, please. I'm home_ », he said in reply.

«I finished my work on that data extraction. I have some interesting information. Can you come to my place so we can talk about it in person?»

« _I'll be right there. Give me about 20 minutes._ »

BlueDevil prepared the computer for in-depth research on what could be useful, a little more complex availability data that he could collect on his own. He returned to the living area of the apartment out of simple scruples, driven by a slight maniacal impulse to check that he hadn’t left clothes or garbage lying around.

Selene often made fun of him for his way of doing things a bit too precise, also because Artair didn't really have many guests in his house, but she also felt the years she lived with her uncle. Those few times McTavish had gone to his niece's house without warning, she found her apartment just as tidy, just a few clothes left here and there in the bedroom — a part of the house he hoped the young lady wouldn’t show so easily to anyone.

Jensen arrived on time. Like the first time, he reached the top floor with the elevator, also because it was already on the first floor, and went through the front door left open while the host was pouring coffee, the unmistakable scent that had already reached him on the landing.

«Coffee?», Artair asked him after giving him a polite look.

«Yes, thank you. With milk and sugar, please», replied the agent.

Adam's voice was calm, the dark shields on his eyes showed nothing, yet his face seemed relaxed, perhaps due to the rest he had probably accumulated over the weekend: they hadn't actually seen each other since that night at Crannóg.

BlueDevil handed the filled cup to the ex-SWAT, observing the fine workmanship of the coat that fit him well, while under it he wore dark trousers and a heavy-looking shirt. The rain had left several drops of water in his hair, but he did not seem to care much for them.

He looked at him just one more moment, drinking from his cup before tilting his head in an absorbed nod towards the bedroom.

«This way, follow me», said the hacker on his way to the room.

They moved without adding anything else, crossing the gap beyond the wall mirror. Artair took one look at the man just in time to see a smug expression on his face.

«Geez!» exclaimed Adam. «Such a location might make another hacker of my acquaintance envious.»

«Oh, yeah? Who? Maybe I know him», McTavish said, moving to the chair and placing the cup on a secure spot on the console.

The agent squeezed into his shoulders quickly, taking a long sip of coffee. He hadn't heard from Pritchard for several weeks now. The last time they had spoken was when his former colleague had involved him in infiltrating one of the Palisade's Blades.

He took a hidden look at the other man, wondering if it was really wise to give McTavish a name. Maybe Francis himself would have disagreed but it was also a way to test some of the theories Adam had developed about the real hack skills of BlueDevil.

«NuclearSnake rings a bell?»

The other man laughed, nodding. «I know by reputation, I've never worked with him personally. I just chatted with him on the net a couple of times and studied some of his code, identifying his signature. I'd recognize it if I saw it. He's definitely prepared and resourceful, but don't tell him I told you.»

Jensen slipped a quick sneer, nodding slowly. «Let it never be, his ego is already big enough», he replied just before he drank from the cup.

«There, I see you got the point», BlueDevil added, warming his throat with coffee. «But, uh... How do you know him? I don't think he's part of The Collective. From what little I know, he's not the type to go into any bigger business than he is.»

Jensen reflected a few seconds on that last part from McTavish's comment, nodding again. Indeed, knowing Pritchard, he had repeatedly wondered how his former colleague had managed to be the chief of cyber-security at Sarif Industries at a time when an internationally-renowned augmentations company was the obvious target of industrial espionage and public opinion. And attacks by the Illuminati.

In fact, it was also a working environment for Adam that was quite far from his initial goals, but his _whys_ they were all about what had happened to him with SWAT and the _providential_ intervention of Megan Reed. The need for employment, then, had prevailed. It was probably the same for Francis.

«Work colleagues in America, each in their field», Jensen replied. «Fortunately for a very short time», he added, trying to bring the discussion back to a different level.

To imply that working with someone like NuclearSnake was definitely nerve-wracking was the quickest way to get back to why the man was there.

BlueDevil laughed openly at that response, nodding in the ergonomic chair and beginning to show some of the data from the military base in Russia.

The agent went even closer to the various screens present, the cup lowered along the side, held between the fingers, to read names and texts in Cyrillic and to observe the images highlighted.

«So, what have we got?», he asked in a careful tone.

His skills with the Russian language were very poor, he hoped that McTavish was much better prepared than him.

Artair typed on the keyboard to bring more information to the foreground, showing it to the man next to him, then taking his cup in his hand to drink the little coffee left.

«From what I see, it won't be a walk in the park, even if it's just for the area where the complex is located. Also, the data I'm extrapolating on this facility, apparently called System09, isn’t complete enough. I think that contacting Janus is a way to get official and _unofficial_ maps and documents faster, because if I had to do it alone it would probably take too long.» He paused, taking a look at Jensen. «I don't want to repeat the same mistake I made in France.»

Adam nodded, realizing in turn how risky that investigation could be for him as well. «Are you still convinced that bringing Selene with us is a good idea?»

The hacker sighed, looking back at the screens. «The only way not to have her with us is to keep her in the dark about the plan, but she may decide to act on her initiative by other means if we leave her behind. I understand that the idea doesn't tickle you, but at least this way I can protect her better.» He paused, looking back at the augmented man. «You could try, if it's not too much trouble, to... »

The man stopped, his expression, along with that of the agent, slightly surprised to hear someone knocking at the front door with a certain vehemence, three rapid and loud knocks that broke the silence in the rest of the apartment.

«Are you expecting visitors?», asked Jensen, circumspect, placing the cup on the next shelf.

«No, I wasn't expecting anyone else but you.» Artair got up from his chair and walked towards the gap left open by the mirror. «Wait here, I'll slightly narrow the passage. It could be some neighbor who saw you come in. Among a few of them, there is someone who doesn't appreciate augs. I'm sorry.»

Adam didn't have time to tell him not to worry about it, it certainly wasn't something BlueDevil had to take into account if someone was still so openly hostile towards people like him. He watched him disappear beyond the reinforced door, standing by while waiting but paying close attention to possible suspicious noises.

When McTavish looked through the peephole, he brought a hand to his face, exasperated. He had a vague feeling of what might have happened, feeling legitimately overwhelmed by the desire to let sound swearing at the person on the other side of the entrance. He opened the door to his niece, staring at her diagonally while she held an innocent smile on her lips.

«Am I bothering you, uncle?», she said on the way in.

Selene was dressed in dark jeans, probably well-padded for the cold weather outside, and comfortable boots on her feet; the upper part of her body was protected by a black fake leather jacket and a shaped sweatshirt with a petrol green hoodie closed on her belly through a zip, her hands tucked into the pockets of the jacket, around her neck a grey wool scarf. The purple hair, moistened by the autumn weather, was tied in a herringbone braid that started already from the top of the head, the blue eyes without a trickle of make-up shining with amused enthusiasm.

«What are you doing here?», asked the other.

The young woman took the vu-phone from one of the pockets in which she held her hands, showing the screen to her relative: what the hacker saw on the device confirmed her initial doubt, his brown eyes grainy and his mouth open in an annoyed verse.

«You're an idiot...», he finally blurted, pointing a finger at her. «Idiot and... And... ».

The bedroom door opened, allowing Adam to reach the room where the two Scots were staying. Selene gave him a surprised glance, caught quite unexpectedly by his presence. She glanced at BlueDevil in a moment and then turned again to the ex-SWAT.

«Um... Am I interrupting something?», she asked, alluding.

«What are you doing here?», advanced the agent in a serious tone, crossing his arms to his chest, his eyes protected by the dark shields that probed the girl's expression.

Artair sighed, shaking his head. He pointed at the girl with one hand without giving her time to answer personally. «My niece hacked my phone, so when my computer finished decrypting the embassy files, the notification reached her too.»

Selene moved to the rest of the apartment, carelessly lifting her shoulders as she passed Jensen as if nothing had happened. «What can I say for myself? You taught me all too well, uncle.»

The two men followed her with their gaze after they had cast an exasperated glance; despite the covering of the shields, Adam's gaze was equally obvious.

«I was going to contact you later today, Selene», said Artair, flanking the ex-SWAT.

The young woman addressed him with a veiled expression of sarcasm and skepticism, pointing at the augmented man with a couple of fingers before answering.

«Yes, in fact, you contacted him first», she said in a slightly more serious voice than expected.

Jensen continued to keep his arms crossed over his chest, determined not to give the young lady time again to add any beaten comments or annoying jokes. «Because I asked him to do it, and because, in some ways, I have some experience in the matter.»

Selene looked at him, on her face an unusual seriousness. She nodded quickly, picking up the pace for the bedroom without waiting for her uncle to invite her to continue in that room.

«The idea of asking Janus for help doesn't tickle you, I guess», she added as she walked.

Adam watched her disappear beyond the doorway, turning around for a moment on McTavish before he, in turn, picked up the pace, the hacker beckoning him back to the hidden room, a grimace of disappointment on his face. They found the girl behind the ergonomic chair, her hands on the upper edge of the backrest and her face illuminated by the screens on.

The agent took a quick, silent look at her, exhaling just before putting into words yet another doubt. «You said you wouldn't try to _read me_ again, whatever that means.»

She shook her head in a thoughtful nod of denial, focused on reading the digital data. It _really_ looked like she was reading Cyrillic, losing a few moments before answering.

«I didn't, but I thought about the few details I reconnected with you», she said seriously, putting one hand back in her pocket, while with the other she carried back a shorter strand of hair that had escaped from the right temple area. «I don't want any more Janus' intervention either, if we can avoid it.»

The ex-SWAT waited a moment, once again looking at Artair and finding him definitely surprised by his niece's words. «Why do you think I don't want to inform Janus?»

Selene turned only at that instant, observing both men with more mature expression, well aware of how incredibly important that speech was.

«Probably because you don't trust him. Or her. We don't know if it's a man or a woman, right?», she replied, a cheeky little smile finally lifting the corners of her lips. «This habit of yours of keeping your eyes covered is such a bore, anyway...»

McTavish watched them in silence the whole time, slightly puzzled by what he had heard of their brief conversation. He wasn't quite sure, but it seemed more like a continuation of what they had said days before. He decided not to investigate, however, there was no point in trying to come between the two without good reason.

Until they didn't _jump at each other's throats_ , he would let them handle their approach to each other. Also because trying to control Selene and constantly tell her not to act like a _bitch_ to someone was easier said than done.

With a movement of the head, he moved away from Jensen's side and took back the computer, overtaking the girl. His niece broke one-way eye contact with the agent and followed the relative's movement to turn towards the screens.

Artair told her exactly the same thing he had told the ex-SWAT, adding more information that the two listened to with great interest. Both Adam and he focused on the few files in English, though not particularly helpful in completing an initial plan of action. Selene instead moved some documents in Russian to one of the lower screens, continuing alone in reading those texts.

BlueDevil got up from his chair to approach the shelves on the right, intending to retrieve a digital reader that would help him in translating what he obviously couldn’t understand. Jensen had been a bit out of place, almost behind the girl; he was busy looking for something specific in the documents he was reading before with the hacker, but he found himself distracted several times by the young woman who remained silent studying the Cyrillic ones.

Did that _little girl_ really know Russian?

McTavish reached him shortly after with a tablet in his hands, the doubtful expression first addressed to the documents and then to his niece. The augmented man saw him exhale deeply, squeezing himself in his shoulders.

«Well... As you can see it's not easy to evade her», the hacker murmured, clearly referring to the girl.

«You just have to keep trying, maybe for the millionth time you can do it», she said, facing the computer again.

The two reserved an exasperated expression for her, although Adam's was obviously more hidden thanks to the shields. Although he was not particularly inclined to accept that collaboration lightly, he had to admit that a small part of himself found Selene subtly amusing. Perhaps in a completely different context, he would have been even less grumpy.

BlueDevil shook the head again, returning to the agent. «By the way, is it true you don't want to contact Janus?»

«I have my way of working», replied Adam, trying to steer the conversation in a completely different direction. «I simply want to have an idea of what I should do before I request any involvement of the Collective», he added, crossing his arms to his chest.

Artair waited a moment, in silence, reflecting in turn. «Would you like to ask someone else?»

The ex-SWAT observed the screens, dedicating himself only a moment to the profile of Selene's face on his left, visibly absorbed in the study of the files she had decided to study. «Actually, no, but... Hard to say with the little we know now.»

The hacker nodded in response, pointing with one hand at the location. «Are you suggesting we continue to investigate on our own? Janus vaguely knows the target my niece and I have set for ourselves, but he assured me that he would take no further interest.»

Adam sighed, tilting his head to one side and the other in a vague nod of dissent. He had imagined that the leader of the Collective knew more than he had told him when he proposed the assignment, he was not at all surprised. But in Artair and Selene's shoes, he wouldn’t be so calm.

«Do you trust Janus?», he asked in a careful voice.

BlueDevil took one look at his niece, denying it imperceptibly. «I know that no matter how noble his purpose is, he cannot be totally disinterested in the matter.»

The other barely nodded, his lips contracted into a serious line. «Glad you're aware of that.»

«You don't have to worry about Janus», Selene intervened, suggesting that she had listened to the conversation without any problems even though she was busy mentally translating what she was reading.

Artair took one look at his niece, followed shortly afterward by the ex-SWAT. Both looked at her waiting for her to add the rest, Jensen always with his arms crossed at the chest but in that case in a much more skeptical position.

«If there should be any interest of the Collective in the history of the Hymeneal Plan, I will act accordingly», she answered. «Until then, let's just be cautious and not give them any more material to investigate.»

They saw her smile openly, turning her head in their direction, her eyes bright blue with amused enthusiasm, much brighter in the light of the screens.

«Unbelievable to say but... I agree with Adam», she concluded in a relaxed tone. «Let's not inform Janus.»

Jensen gave her an indecipherable look, definitely surprised by the first part of those last words. It was the first time she called his name, he was quite certain of it. And he hadn't perceived hilarity or sarcasm, another not inconsiderable detail.

Was that _little girl_ really willing to stop being so resistant to the idea of his direct involvement?

Selene raised her hand to point to the tablet between Artair's fingers, finally nodding towards the screen she was viewing. «Uncle, you should pay attention to this name.»

McTavish looked at her for a moment with a confused expression, activating the device after a moment and starting the on-screen translation program via the camera. Adam gave space to the other man to let him get closer to the desk, set himself to the side to try to look at the tablet in turn, with poor results as he would have to hold the device himself.

Maybe he had to ask Koller if there was anything useful to integrate into the HUD, although he wasn't really keen on the idea of upgrading the graft with something unofficial or adding some other possible chip among the many already inside him.

«Shit», murmured Artair, continuing to read what was translated from the screen of the handheld device.

«Yeah», commented the niece, crossing her arms at her chest. She moved much more to their left, with her back to the desk and leaning with her buttocks on the edge of the shelf.

Jensen gave her a long questioning look, to which she answered after looking up from the floor, bringing her palms to the sides of her hips, to the edge of the work table, and crossing her ankles in a soft pose. But despite her calm expression, the agent had the feeling that Selene was not completely relaxed.

Adam returned to BlueDevil when he saw him visibly denying it with his head, listening to him murmur another expletive under his voice. The hacker turned to look at the young girl, a quick, silent exchange between the two, only to notice the careful frown of the ex-SWAT.

«There's the name of a... A person we know», Artair began to explain. «Helga Hartmann. She is a... A patron, if we can call her that. I've turned to her in the past to find some people.»

Selene nodded slowly, her head bent over the floor again. «Actually, it was my instructor who put us in touch with this woman.»

«Your instructor?», Jensen repeated, staring at her.

The young woman nodded, even responding to the long look after a quick second of silence.

«I started practicing various styles of fighting as a child while I was at Horus Field. My instructor was the person who helped my parents and me to escape, even though things didn't go exactly as planned, as you now know.» A quick shadow obscured the clear blue of her irises; she tilted her head toward one shoulder and devoted her attention to the floor again. «While my mother, my father and I were on the run, he reunited with my uncle to allow us to meet, but... Well...»

Artair hastened to fill in yet another niece's silence, taking the floor and drawing Jensen's attention with a wave of his hand.

«Her instructor helped us for so long, we stayed with him for several years after the escape from Horus Field.»

He paused, staring at the name written in Cyrillic on the screen, related to some information he had read only thanks to the program on the tablet.

«From what I see here, Helga Hartmann is connected to Belltower Associates.»

In Adam's mind, classic alarm bells rang at the mere mention of PMC. The fact that years later he still had to hear the name of that private militia that had declared bankruptcy after the events of 2027 left him with a deep sense of bitterness in his thoughts.

«Who is this woman, and how is she connected to Belltower?»

McTavish shook his head, taking the portable device in hand and summarily reading what the digital program translated into real-time.

«It's only reported a bill of sale in which Helga appears to have been some kind of middleman.» The man brought a hand to his chin, thoughtful. «It appears that Hartmann acquired for a short time a structure that belonged to Belltower, which was then sold to the Russian government.»

«And where is this facility?», asked the agent.

«It's not written», replied Selene, drawing the eyes of both of them.

The girl squeezed herself in the shoulders a little later because of the way the augmented man kept staring at her. Artair had an _excuse_ for how he could summarily read the data transcribed in Cyrillic but she wasn't using any electronic device, and it was a detail that kept surprising the ex-SWAT. Selene had to intuit what the other was silently asking for, nodding with a gesture of carelessness.

«I like to study and I learn fast. I understand Russian written broadly, but I can't speak it. Not yet, at least. When I heard about the possibility of having to go to Russia, I started to study the language myself.»

Jensen raised his head slightly, legitimately doubtful. «Let me get this straight, in... How long? In a couple of months, _you_ learned to read Russian?»

The girl burst out laughing at the tone and expression shown by the ex-SWAT, moving away from the shelf with a kidney shot, her arms crossed over her chest.

«Free not to believe me. But from here to the infiltration of the military complex, I'll be the only one who can speak Russian, apparently.»

Artair turned his gaze slightly to yet another rather quiet but subtly mocking exchange between the two — from there to the mission in Russia he was certain he would keep them apart if they were to continue to be so grumpy. He held his position in front of the main keyboard, resuming to select other files written in Cyrillic, the nearby tablet ready to use.

Selene stared at the relative for a few moments, taking a long breath before speaking again. «Uncle, you know the best way to get the information you're looking for now is to go straight to her.»

«I know, but I want to avoid it. And if I have to, I'll go alone», he answered.

The niece shook her head, laughing openly and sarcastically. «Yeah, sure...»

«Selene...», BlueDevil replied to her in a serious tone as he turned to look at her, a hand already raised in a clear authoritarian nod.

Adam quickly moved a couple of steps between the two, his statuesque presence avoided a follow-up to yet another discussion. «What's the matter with this woman?»

McTavish hesitated a moment, emulating the position the young woman had taken a few minutes earlier, leaning with his buttocks against the console and finding support with his palms on the edge.

«Helga is a prominent figure in the criminal milieu of the Czech Republic and Germany. She lives in Most, a small town about half a mile to the north. When Selene's instructor turned to her to help us find some people, Hartmann requested a favor in return.»

Jensen nodded, fully aware of what the hacker meant by that answer. It was too easy to go back with memories to some events that had led him, in turn, to deal with various exponents of organized crime in Prague. He was not new to such dynamics at all.

BlueDevil took one look at his niece, exchanging an equally comprehensive silence with her.

«Some time later, I needed her help again to find some information about the Hymeneal Plan. To keep the Horus Field project secret, so that she wouldn't be interested in our research, I had to do her a big favor.»

He looked back at Adam, bending his head against his shoulder in an uncertain gesture.

«Something not exactly legal, as you well imagine... Nothing that costed people's lives, but I helped her find some sensitive data on some politicians in her country: a way to keep them by the balls, she says.»

The ex-SWAT, in turn, pondered what to say, taking a quick look at the young woman, much closer to him than the hacker. «Going to her to ask her for information means having to comply with her request.»

«Exactly», confirmed McTavish.

«But it might still help to talk to her», Selene intervened, the serious expression.

Artair pointed his hand at her again, pointing to her to ask her not to continue. «We won't go together.»

«I won't let you go alone, you know that», the girl replied, visibly denying it and bending slightly in a different direction not to look at the relative.

Jensen sensed that this physical movement was a very specific way for the young lady to state how much she disagreed with someone. He had already noticed it the night they met, always at BlueDevil's house. He had to try to mediate to find a solution.

«I can take you, McTavish», the agent said.

The man shook his head, taking a long, apprehensive look at him, some wrinkles on his forehead made evident by that grimace of uncertainty. «You're not supposed to do that. It's not dangerous to go to that woman.»

«She's a criminal», sentenced Selene, the voice tense. «She might ask you for something dangerous in return. Maybe it's a piece of cake to get the information we want, but she might demand that you do for her something too risky. Going in alone isn’t an option. I swear I will take the wheel off your car if...»

«Selene, stop», Artair shot it in an exasperated tone. «I see what you mean, but taking one of you with me just means giving Helga a chance to sift through more proposals.» He nodded to the agent, addressing him directly. «You're an augmented man with military grafts and combat skills, it won't take her long to guess what you're capable of, and then try to use you to her advantage.»

The ex-SWAT tilted his face in a careless gesture, raising an eyebrow beyond the lens. «It wouldn't be the first time.»

«So, let's just you and I go, uncle», Selene tried again, moving up to him and touching his arm, a slight shift to look him straight in the eye. «I look like an ordinary girl, she can't suppose anything of my abilities.»

McTavish still denied with the head, much more adamant to not face that situation with the girl. «I don't want that woman to see you, not least because I suspect she knows you are my niece: she may demand your stay to persuade me to do what she wishes.»

The young girl burst out laughing, exasperated. She gave him her back as she lifted her arms in a beaten movement, returning to stare at him shortly afterward. «Are you deliberately ignoring what I'm capable of? If that woman tries to hold me against my will, the least I can do is break her arms.»

BlueDevil rolled his eyes, a grimace of disappointment and his voice even more nervous. «Yes, and then you'll be drilled to bullets by her men.»

« _No one_ will be drilled to bullets, because _no one_ will break a single bone to that woman», the ex-SWAT intervened, indicating first Artair and then Selene, following the logical sense of his answer.

The three of them stared for a few moments in silence: McTavish crossed his arms on his chest, looking at the screens, his niece looked down at the floor, her fists closed against her hips, and Jensen waited for some possible idea, evaluating in his mind what to do.

Selene was the first to take the floor, trying to take a much calmer tone. «Let's all go together, then.»

The men looked at her, skeptical and subtly surprised, glances to which she responded with a shrug of her back.

«We have to work together, right? Might as well start with this _silly thing_ , even to feel the ground for the structure in Russia», she argued, the body relaxed in a quiet pose. «If we have to work in symbiosis, I want to be able to understand if it is practicable. If there is no compatibility, I need to know before I accept the idea that Adam will help me in the field too.»

She took one look at the augmented man and gave him an accommodating nod of the hand.

«I want to _trust_ you», she went on to emphasize the most important word in the sentence. «The people I let watch my back are counted on the fingers of one hand. No offense, eh!»

Jensen rediscovered himself genuinely caught off guard, because through the social enhancer he knew that the young woman was absolutely sincere: she wanted to trust him, spontaneously and without hesitation. He cataloged that emotional response as a consequence of her young age, naively passionate and without a sensible negative meaning. Yet it was hard to believe that she was really so willing to give in, not when he thought about what he knew about her, what had happened to her.

How could that _little girl_ really be willing to put that unconditional trust in him, a man she didn't even know? That it was a means to test him?

Adam raised an eyebrow, leaving a much more skeptical frown visible than expected.

«Sure», he replied. «I'm used to looking over my shoulder. No offense.»

Selene smiled back at him, rolling her eyes and denying it in an amused gesture. «You have that subtle sense of humor that I find pleasing. We're gonna get along just fine.»

«I have my legitimate doubts», Adam said, causing her to giggle quietly. And he almost smiled, too, because honestly, despite her young age, Selene had a temper that Jensen might have thought was quite akin to his own in the long run.

Artair stared at them for a second, determined to ignore their umpteenth verbal exchange to bring attention back to Helga Hartmann.

Selene's idea made sense, it would have been a way to feel the ground, to find out if the niece and the agent could really work together. And it was certain that if anything happened, Adam would intervene without even asking.

He took a long breath, took a look at the screens and then went back on them. «If it's not a problem, it's better to go today. It'll take us about an hour and a half in the car. If we're ready to go, I'll send Helga a message to warn her.»

Selene squeezed her shoulders, nodding without any worry. «Oh, I'm gonna have to cancel the evening party at my house. Too bad.»

Artair and Adam took one look at her in unison. Though with active shields, the agent's expression was much more exasperated than BlueDevil's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive the short delay, I had some problems with the program I use to write in English. This is because I finally have a brand new laptop, so I spent all my savings on it, but I definitely needed it.  
> When I started writing this story two years ago, I helped my inspiration with the fan video present in the fandom of Deus Ex, besides finding the desire to write also through other videogames (of course I'm referring to The Last Of Us II, so close to its release, honestly I've already booked it for Day One).
> 
> Thanks as always for being here to read and support this story.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam escorts Selene and Artair to an old acquaintance of theirs, but it won't be a pleasant and quiet visit at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Presence of strong language, just a couple of swear words, adult topics, including sex and violence; contains some reference to rape.

The late afternoon in Prague, in the middle of November, was already characterized by a discreet absence of daylight, and the cold weather seemed to draw more vigor from the approaching evening. At that time of the year, the sun went down around five o'clock p.m., enveloping the Czech capital in that soft glow given by artificial lights and the first Christmas decorations that already embellished only a few districts of the city.

Selene had walked in the direction of Artair's car, outside the front door of the building, anticipating her uncle and the agent with a quick step. She kept her hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket and the hood of the oil-green sweatshirt to cover her from the weak drizzle, her head slightly recessed in the grey wool scarf for the frost that promptly ran over her.

McTavish had opened the car with the remote control, being surprised to notice when his niece decided to settle in the back seat. Adam had found that behavior equally bizarre, imagining only improbable scenarios behind that gesture, but he decided not to inquire verbally.

Gentle permission to leave the front passenger seat for him? Some form of antiquated respect for someone older than her? Really?

Perhaps he was attributing behavior to Selene that he would have done in a similar situation. Probably she had been driven by other reasons, there was no point in questioning any further about the actions of the girl, actions more noticed during that last evening at Crannóg — in fact, much more evident when they had _actually_ spoken for the first time at her place.

They left the city center after about twenty minutes of continuous and smooth driving, just a bit of traffic at the points already foreseen, taking the E55 northbound.

Jensen used the trip to ask for more information, from the background of Helga Hartmann, anything they knew about the woman, even a minor one, to discussing her business and how best to act in the presence of the woman.

«My advice is to leave any guns in the car, and do the same with your papers», the hack suggested. «Helga might be interested to know your name and the reasons that prompted you to come with us. It is better not to give her anything she can blackmail or threaten you with.»

Adam nodded distractedly, his mind turned to a reflection that he preferred to keep to himself.

He hadn't brought guns also because, on balance, being on break from the TF29 meant that he didn't really have permission to go armed through the streets of the city. He was, however, well equipped with the ammunition integrated into his offensive aug systems, from the Typhoon to the experimental TESLA, PEPS and the nanoblades.

Although he couldn’t use the equipment he was given as an Interpol agent at will, the Collective had supplied him with useful contacts through which he could buy pistols and rifles to keep in his apartment.

He didn't think it was necessary to carry any weapons, but he was in no way worried about it. He was perfectly able to adapt to any situation and use his skills to cope with any event.

«I can use my social enhancer», he began to respond to Artair's previous words, «to try to convince that woman not to investigate too much. I'm not saying that I guarantee a positive outcome to the conversation at all, but it may be an idea. I can only get a better picture of her personality in her presence.»

«Yes, I think I know what you mean», replied BlueDevil, nodding but letting them hear in his tone of voice a hint of curiosity, probably addressed to the graft Adam nominated. «In any case, if Helga understands that you're conditioning her behavior with some augmentation, she may react violently. I had to tell her that you're augmented, and I'm sure she's taking the right shrewdness about it.»

The agent made a slight grimace, turning his head to the window next to him, the dark shields illuminated at regular intervals by the street lamps at the side of the asphalt road.

The doubt that he could end up in the lair of someone prepared to put his grafts to rest flashed in his mind with obvious bitterness. He didn’t want to find himself reliving the annoying sensation of the suppression biochip on his skin. He hoped there was nothing like it waiting for him but some simple EMP system he could avoid thanks to Rhino Dermal Armor.

«That could be a problem», he admitted, «but only if that woman understands I'm trying to convey the conversation.»

The agent waited for a few moments, feeling the weight of Selene leveraging her seat to lean between the front ones, her face slightly over Adam's shoulder. He tried to ignore the girl's presence, sure that, no matter if he asked her anything, she would still start talking without any delay.

«What is the social enhancer?», she questioned, the voice filled with interest.

The ex-SWAT kept silent for a few more seconds, first looking ahead, the road unrolling in a well-lit straight, surrounded by the evening landscape of the Czech countryside, and then turning slightly towards the young lady. He couldn't look directly at her, he would have to turn a lot in the seat, so he kept his eyes covered by the shields on Artair, who was equally interested in the man's response.

«CASIE implant, Computer Assisted Social Intelligence Enhancer. It is an augmentation that works together with my Eye-Know Retinal Prostheses to analyze the behavior patterns of subjects during a conversation, providing psychological data based on physical responses such as heartbeat, facial expression and body language.»

McTavish gave him a faint nod of assent, even though the eyebrow visible from Adam's view bowed, not entirely convinced, his forehead slightly wrinkled.

«Oh!», murmured Selene, waving her head in a gesture of amazement for a moment. «That sounds useful.»

Jensen felt the angle of his lips barely lift, stopping immediately afterward the response of his sly amusement with a quick tilt of his face toward the window on his side.

«It is.»

The girl waited for a few seconds in silence, still leaning against the seat of the agent and trying to peer at his expression. A small, curious smile escaped her, all too aware that he was avoiding looking at her.

«You used that CASIE mod on me to get me to accept your cooperation?»

The long silence that followed made BlueDevil cough a couple of times, a choked giggle so Adam took a legitimately doubtful look at him from beyond the shields. He decided not to look at the girl yet, sighing deeply before answering her.

«No, I didn't use it in that context.»

«In that context...», she repeated, giggling instead of the relative. «Does that mean you used it at some other time?»

Adam nodded vaguely with his head, exhaling. He turned again to look out the world outside the window, reflecting for a long moment on what to say to her. He chose the truth, determined to feel the ground on which she had said she wanted to move.

«To catalog your behavior and to determine if you were telling me the truth.»

«And?», continued the girl.

She pushed herself a little further between the two front seats to rest her head on the edge of her uncle's seat, so that she could observe the agent's profile more comfortably.

When Jensen finally turned to look at her, he found her waiting, an expression of solidarity that gave her blue eyes a connotation that was suddenly too mature and sympathetic, as if somehow she already knew the answer, knew the reasons for his doubts and accepted without problems the mistrust of the man towards her.

«And yes, you've always told me the truth so far.»

Selene smiled back, quickly lifting her eyes for a sudden thought, only to bring them back to the man. «Then if I tell a lie, will you know I'm lying?»

«Only if I decide to check the social enhancer. It's a passive augmentation but I can choose to ignore it», replied the agent again.

The young lady stood up, trying to move much more physically between the two seats. In response to that movement, Artair puffed loudly, just exasperated.

«Hey, stay still. I'm driving», he complained.

The niece ignored him promptly, her eyes glowing with enthusiasm. «Can we give it a try? I'm too curious to see how it works.» She paused. «But could you remove the lenses?»

«No», replied Jensen peremptorily, deciding to turn towards the window.

«Spoilsport», she murmured, the voice just lowered.

Adam still kept his face to the landscape for a while, which he could sketch roughly beyond the vehicle, trying to ignore as long as possible the girl's clear intent to have a conversation with him. When he took another look at her after a quick throat verse, simply to understand why she remained silent but in the same position, he saw her trying to pity him with a childishly pouty expression, her lower lip slightly exposed and the look of a defenseless fawn.

The man couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow from beyond the shield, perplexed at first but unable to completely hold the corner of his mouth which it raised — traitor — because of the amused sensation that caused him that image.

Selene sneered openly, pointing a finger at him provocatively and looking at him as if she had just witnessed something incredible. «Ohohoh... Was that a smile? Did you really smile at me, sunshine?»

Artair freed his chest from a sudden cough, carrying a hand close by to plug the verse which obviously implied a small laugh. «Selene, don't be annoying.»

Adam felt his lips clenched in a serious and subtly irritated line, as if he found it extremely outrageous that this _little girl_ was so brazen as to make fun of him in total serenity. He resumed watching the road in front of the car, trying to ignore Selene.

The girl made a vague nod with her palm turned to BlueDevil, a symbolic way to tell him not to intervene in some other way and at some other time.

«All right, all right. I'll go back to my very first request», she added in reply. «Come on, Adam, show me how the social enhancer works. Let me tell you some sentences about me and you tell me if they're true or false.»

The agent shook his head, unable to refrain from crossing his arms to his chest in a clear non-verbal message. «It doesn't really work that way. And we don't have that much confidence for you to call me by my first name.»

«How does it work, then?», she poked him with that amused smile on her face. «And if I can't call you Adam, what should I call you? Mr. Jensen doesn't make you feel old?»

«I'm not old», he warned her, raising a hand to highlight the carbon index finger, to point out something he thought was obvious.

«Exactly», she agreed. «So why do you have to play the controlling adult? We're in the car, we still have about 30 minutes before we get to the destination.»

A brief silence plunged into the vehicle, making everyone's souls a little less relaxed in anticipation of their destination. Selene resumed from where she had stopped, continuing to show herself extremely predisposed to chat.

«Let's involve my uncle, too, because he can't get distracted by driving and it'll be harder for you to interpret the reactions on his face.»

«Absolutely not», McTavish intervened, much more upset than lawful at the mere prospect of being analyzed in some way by Jensen. «Selene, stop acting like a child.»

The young girl puffed falsely exasperated and bored, returning to sit against the backrest behind her. She crossed her arms to her chest and turned her head towards the window on her left, a blatant behavior that Artair saw through the rear-view mirror, making him smile.

Adam kept his face for a few minutes in a completely different direction, busy peering through the Czech countryside shrouded in the darkness beyond the guardrail or listening to the deep silence in which he plunged into the car.

Once again, he was genuinely amused by that behavior: however inappropriate he considered it, he found that Selene's aim seemed to be to dampen the tension in some way, trying to establish a light and cheerful dialogue when she seemed to be tense in turn.

The girl perhaps had a habit of hiding her thoughts through apparently childish actions and phrases. It was a method of not letting her concern be detected.

It wasn't the first time he noticed it, although he couldn't be absolutely sure. The social enhancer didn't give a complete picture of that behavior pattern.

That reflection revived for a second the natural instinct of observation from the ex-SWAT, wondering if, in light of his recent admission, Selene was suddenly trying to evade the CASIE mod.

She couldn't have been capable of it, she was too young to have the psycho-aptitude to detach herself from Jensen's brain implant readings.

He knew only one other person who had been able to _fool_ the social enhancer — through a much more advanced graft than his own — and it was the same man who had convinced him to join the Collective with Alex Vega.

Thinking about Garvin Quinn, or whatever his real name was, visibly overshadowed him. The last time he saw his face was in the Tarvos vault at the Palisade Property Bank a month earlier, on a ridiculous digital wanted poster.

Adam waited a few more minutes in silence, absorbed in his thoughts, before shaking his head, knowing full well how much he would have regretted the umpteenth look thrown at the girl, a gesture dictated by a new curiosity that he didn't really believe he would develop in such a context.

He found Selene in profile, staring out the window to her left, with her arms folded and a smile on her lips. He could look at the right side of her face, the one without the seahorse tattoo.

From that, albeit a short distance, he wouldn’t be able to see the scar beyond the drawing, merely peering at the perfect lines of black ink throughout her face. In that case, he could only see smooth and naturally rosy skin, perhaps a little brighter from the cold she had felt outside the car.

She had to perceive the movement of the agent after a few seconds, responding to the gaze protected by the shields without any comment. A quick silent exchange that Jensen himself was about to end, at least until Selene gave him a quick wink just before returning to gaze at the evening landscape of the countryside.

That gesture, as familiar and known as it was sudden, barely surprised him, a feeling of bizarre camaraderie that he had rarely felt in recent years.

There was something in that _little girl_ 's spontaneity that made him annoyingly aware of some of the habits he'd lost since he'd been augmented. Or since he found out he'd been betrayed and taken advance of by people he trusted.

Selene was trying to treat him like she didn't care how far he was away. The young lady had the confidence typical of someone who wasn’t afraid to be intrusive, even at the cost of appearing superficial or childish. She was trying to involve him as much as possible, perhaps as a direct consequence of wanting to trust him. Or maybe it was a way of letting his guard down, testing him.

Although a part of himself felt at fault in assessing that second hypothesis, Jensen couldn’t rule it out. He still wouldn’t have succeeded even if he had wanted to, even if he had the complete certainty that Selene was there with the best intentions, without double or secondary purposes.

Getting to think something similar about such a young girl, little more than twenty years old, made him almost annoyed by his skepticism, his cautious trenches, his inscrutable silence.

She was just a _little girl_ who simply wanted to find points of communion so that they could better manage what they _might_ face together. Maybe with more time, he would have given her the confidence that she was trying to establish a little awkwardly. He had to admit that he wasn't really bothered by it, he felt he appreciated it somewhere secret and well hidden in himself.

He knew how hard it would be to leave behind all the shit that had come over him during his life, but it made no sense to act like an asshole with someone totally unrelated to his past.

Adam returned to stare for a moment at the street lit by lamps and headlights, and then followed the girl's example and watched the darkness beyond the window.

The rest of the journey continued in silence, just as light rain pounding all around them in the vehicle, making a relaxing and pleasant noise.

The lights of the city of Most appeared on the horizon as an extension of the lighting of the E55. The car didn’t enter the town but instead drove past the railway station and continued in the direction of the district of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, finally stopping softly at the side of the road.

Helga Hartmann's villa was decidedly enormous and, from the little that could be seen through the light glow of the artificial lights, even well maintained. It was protected by a finely decorated wrought iron boundary wall, an open gate large enough to allow the passage of one car at a time as the only front access first to the garden and then to the house. Consisting of the first floor and the second floor, it had a red brick roof and exterior walls adorned with hanging sculptures, in obvious emulation of Prague's historical architecture.

Artair turned off the car, a brief sigh before looking towards the augmented man and taking a quick look at his niece in the rear-view mirror, watching her deprive herself of her wool scarf and some other personal item to leave there.

Selene knew when it was necessary to behave much more carefully to focus completely on a goal: in that precise case, her only aim was to protect her uncle from any uncomfortable situation, even at the cost of causing tension with Helga Hartmann.

She also knew that Adam, in one way or another, would help her more or less consciously. All she needed to remember was how the agent stood between her and BlueDevil the first time they met.

The three got out of the car almost in unison, the young girl on the side of the relative to be directly next to him. The rain gave them a minimum of respite, calming it down in a few scattered drops moved more by the light wind than by the force of gravity. Once Jensen, too, was at Artair's side, they quickly made their way to the entrance of the newly built structure, looking only from that distance at the white windows lit by well-disposed spotlights. The lights inside, beyond the glass and the curtains drawn, gave the impression that only a few of the rooms were used at that hour by someone, concentrating more on the first floor.

A man armed with a combat rifle, FR-27 Sanction Flechette Rifle model, peeped at them with a grim expression, still making them pass with a quick nod. They weren’t even searched, but Adam had preferred to listen to the hack's advice, leaving in the car the bare essentials, just as the two Scots had done.

Despite that bizarre stillness, Jensen felt a subtle sensation of alarm mounting over his throat. The idea of having to keep an eye on the hacker and the girl brought to mind when, a year earlier in Detroit, he had allowed Stacks to assist him in the _enemy camp_.

The man's death continued to haunt him, and he was absolutely sure that he would never again allow a civilian to go somewhere dangerous with him.

If something had happened to Artair and Selene, he would have never forgiven himself. Even if he'd _known_ them for a few days, he would have done everything he could to protect them.

Passing through the double door of the entrance, the trio moved into a hallway decorated with paintings on the walls and modern furniture on the sides, invited to move along an established route until they reached the room where they found a woman with five other bodyguards.

It was a small study, a desk near the wall on the left, several bookcases full of files behind it, and some filing cabinets on the front of the room, close to the windows. There was also a small sofa on the right, two men were sitting there in careful contemplation, weapons in their hands, while the other three were closer to the curtains and the desk.

Helga Hartmann had been in her fifties for a couple of years, but she kept herself pleasantly beautiful with physical activity and sport, as well as relaxing sessions with a few good beauticians. Her eyes were chocolate-colored, dark and intense, almost gentle, but the sneer on her lips suggested much more of her personality. Her blonde hair, kept in a soft, fashionable cut, gave her an aristocratic look, together with the well-made suit she was wearing at that moment.

«Artair», she began in a warm voice, rising from the ergonomic chair over the work table. She moved to pass the furniture with a calm and relaxed step, resting her buttocks on the edge of the shelf. «How long...»

McTavish could barely hold back a line of disappointment. «Never enough, as far as I'm concerned.»

The woman smiled, amused, taking a look at the other two. «I see you still don't trust me enough to come and see me alone. Curious, to see that you carry around an aug», she commented as she studied the agent, her face absorbed in a long reflection. «But typical of someone who doesn't feel safe.»

Selene shook her head, lifting it in rapid laughter. «He's certainly not the one who surrounds himself with cheap little soldiers.»

McTavish turned to look at the young girl with an expression that was very upset by the way she had decided to enter the discussion. Adam, on the other hand, paid more attention to the other men and the woman's physical responses, seeing only a little veiled interest in the words she had just heard.

Helga brought a hand to her lips, smiling and staring at the young lady. «You must be his niece, right? I don't know much about you, apart from a possible temper. And you're quite beautiful too», she continued in a relaxed voice, taking a quick look at her henchmen. «Isn't that right, boys? What do you think?»

The brief male laughter that spread through the room made Artair nervous, an evident waving of the hands that came out of the jacket suddenly closed with a fist along the hips. Selene instead limited herself to staring at the woman as if she were just waiting for her to make a false step. She was totally focused on her, there was no point in paying the slightest attention to the other men.

«We don't want to stay long, Helga», BlueDevil replied in a firm tone. «Let's get straight to the point. I found some information linking you to a sale that took place some time ago between the now-defunct Belltower and the Russian government. I'm interested to know exactly what it was about.»

The blonde gave a vague nod of consent, a flattered smile on her lips. «Still looking for whatever it is you're looking for, huh, Artair? Why on earth would I give you such information?»

McTavish waited a moment in silence, shifting his gaze for a second as if he wanted to look at his niece just behind him. He refrained from bending his head to continue staring at Hartmann, hoping that Selene would maintain the necessary control to get out of there without much trouble.

«As we have done before, you are free to ask me a favor in return», the man proposed in a firm tone.

Helga nodded again, taking a quick look at Selene and Adam, that sneer still there on her lips. «I like to see that you still remember how I prefer to be _pampered_ , it's a nice way of sensing that you haven't forgotten me after all.»

The girl let slip a grumpy verse, unable to hide her disdain. A woman like Hartmann, who tried to make her uncle uncomfortable with those comments, was as disgusting as she could have imagined. She couldn’t even assess the hypothesis that a person dared to provoke Artair with allusive and ill-concealed vulgarity in an attempt to humiliate and control him.

A part of her strongly wished to make Hartmann's tongue explode beyond her lips made up by a light lipstick. Something in her soul told her that she had to try, maybe to find out that she would succeed.

«Your niece seems annoyed», added the landlady, observing first Selene and then BlueDevil.

«It's hard to keep a young temper under control, but I assure you she's harmless», McTavish replied, crossing his arms to his chest as he turned just a little bit to get a good look at the girl. «If you're not going to grant my request», he continued, staring back at Helga, «it makes no sense for us to stay here.»

The woman burst out laughing, still holding her hand to her face. «Who said I don't want to cooperate?», she added, walking away from the desk and taking one step towards the man. «Follow me.»

Artair moved sideways so as not to be touched when the woman passed by, giving another glance full of a thousand subtext to his niece, who joined him in an instant, hands clasped fist along her hips.

Jensen moved quickly behind the two Scots, only interested in keeping the bodyguards away from his improvised _companions_.

The men who had been sitting on the couch hadn’t stopped for a single moment caressing the handles of their weapons while they paid total attention to Selene's back. In fact, they hadn't really looked at her shoulders, but much lower down — her butt wrapped in dark jeans.

Adam had heard them whispering unequivocal comments between them, subdued giggles accompanied by shameless gestures of hips and legs wide open in an obvious pose.

He felt a deep disgust for those individuals. He was so bewildered by the abject prospect that someone could even look at a _little girl_ like that, as if they wanted to beat her to death and rape her while she suffocated in her blood.

It was certain that Artair would get himself killed to protect his niece from such an atrocity.

What about him? What would Adam do if someone tried to touch Selene?

Before the augmentations, he always tried to minimize his _victims_ even when he was in the police. Sometimes he couldn’t avoid it, especially to defend the weakest and himself, but in most cases, he had limited himself to disarming and rendering harmless those who were to be arrested and prosecuted.

Having a weapon in his hand didn’t entitle him to kill people, precisely because he didn’t consider them just targets to be neutralized. With the augmentations, his thinking had become incredibly strong. He had become a weapon himself, a tool to kill. Taking someone's life had become extremely easy, but it was because of that simplicity that Jensen promised himself he would never use his grafts lightly.

Yet if he thought about what he had seen and heard in the previous few minutes, he wasn’t so sure he could keep his promise. He could endure any horror, but not violence against a woman. Not that.

He was sure he was going to tear them all to pieces, all of them. A certainty as vivid and clear as the sun, so powerful and destructive among his thoughts that he moved in groups just a few steps away from the girl.

He noticed Selene taking a quick look at him before leaving the room. He had expected to see a slight perplexity in her for that sudden closeness, but instead saw only sincere awareness — and a silent request that he was unable to decipher immediately.

She must have heard the two men talking those disgusting words and glances at her. And yet, she seemed to care only about her uncle.

Or maybe she actually knew Adam was there to keep something from happening to her. Maybe through her blue eyes, she was trying to tell him not to leave her alone to face those men, that situation. Selene's expression had the power to imprint itself in his mind like an indelible mark.

He realized that taking on such responsibility greatly exaggerated the overwhelming feeling that he could fail.

They returned to the corridor from which they had arrived, following the landlady to the entrance and then continuing down a flight of stairs to the basement of the villa. Once they reached another hallway, much narrower and decidedly minimal in decoration than the ones they had already walked down, they passed a large double door on their left open on what must have been a private gym. They entered a windowless room after a few more feet, finding several electronically locked filing cabinets arranged along all the walls, a small, less sumptuous desk directly against one of the walls.

Helga stood almost in the middle of the room, her arms crossed over her chest in a relaxed and amused nod. Although her men were behind the trio of guests, she felt safe, untouchable.

Artair gave her a tense look, moving one step closer to the woman. «So? What are you going to ask me?»

Hartmann smiled at him again, nodding calmly. «Personally, I don't really need you to do anything for me, but I can find you a long-term job», she began, taking a hand on her chin, pretending to think about it. «Or, if you want, we can make a trade now, something fun for me.»

«What's this about?», BlueDevil asked, just stunned by the possibility. «I won't consider anything involving the people with me.»

The blonde was falsely disappointed, one hand on her chest shaken immediately afterward in the air in a bored gesture. «I can assure you that I have no interest in detaining the aug, since, from personal experience, I don't trust hanzers.»

Jensen ignored the ill-concealed offense against him, he was now extremely used to hearing such comments. If he had been angry or annoyed at every word too many, at every verbal harassment suffered by passers-by and law enforcement officers in Prague, he would only have wasted valuable time unnecessarily.

Selene raised her head slightly, sure somehow that the woman wasn’t excluding her from the answer out of sheer disinterest. She watched the blonde overcome the hacker to approach her directly with a curious frown, that sneer still on her lips.

The idea of making her tongue explode beyond her teeth took on more real connotations.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, in silence, while Helga smiled with increasing emphasis and Selene just looked at her, waiting.

«You're Damian Fisher's pupil, aren't you?», asked the woman in a careful voice. «The young lady for whom he abandoned his old life. Where is your instructor now?»

Selene burst out laughing in her face, careless of offending her in any way; she tilted her head slightly upwards, as she was about four inches shorter than Hartmann. «Even if I knew, do you really think I would tell you?»

Helga giggled in turn, nodding, turning slightly to take a quick look at BlueDevil, just enough to make sure the man was paying due attention.

«You've got a real temper, with that little angel face of yours», she commented, clearly directed at the girl.

She paused, looking before in Jensen's direction and then at some of her men left behind.

«Artair», their host resumed in an amused voice, «you didn't know I like women, did you? I have a soft spot for very young girls», she continued in a calm tone, returning immediately afterward to stare at Selene. «Spend the night with me and I'll give your uncle all the information he wants.»

«Hartmann», growled McTavish, the tone of voice so low and firm that it had the appearance of a rabid throat noise. «Don't you dare...»

The presence of bodyguards prevented him from taking a single step in the direction of the woman. Although three of the five men were better placed inside the room to keep an eye on him, BlueDevil continued to stare at Helga as if he wanted to force her away from his niece. But it was also Jensen's attentive expression that calmed him, knowing that the agent seemed immediately ready to react like him at any moment.

Adam, for his part, wasn’t at all surprised that Helga used sex as a bargaining chip. Nor was he surprised that the landlady was attracted to women, the CASIE had identified behavioral responses that had made him realize her taste. But knowing that it was Selene who had aroused the interest of their host left him subtly dismayed.

She was just a _little girl_ , he kept repeating himself: however good-looking, her young age should have been a deterrent to anyone significantly older than her.

Adam could almost _justify_ that among a person's most hidden desires certain scenarios could also be revealed, but they _had to_ remain confined there, in someone's innermost and private corners.

He didn’t doubt that there were couples in the world where the difference in age between two partners was quite evident, but in those cases, there were feelings big and sincere enough, or possible other interests, to put that difference in second place.

Helga, a woman in her fifties, a prominent figure in German and Czech organized crime, had the sole purpose of drawing pleasure and control from possible sexual intercourse with Selene, a girl in her early twenties, a _little girl_ who probably limited her acquaintances to friends and peers.

Jensen chose to forget how often people like Hartmann, despicable and petty, had no qualms about using others for their gain, whether immediate or delayed in time.

Selene shook her head after a quick sigh. She hadn’t imagined hearing such a proposal, not in front of her uncle. It was something that had the power to make her nervous.

«I reject the offer», she started, sticking her hands in her jacket pockets. «Thirty years younger and maybe I'd think about getting that grin off your face my way...»

Adam took a quick look from beyond the shields at the young lady, without even tilting his head. Perhaps he had to re-evaluate his last reflection on Selene: perhaps she limited her acquaintances to _female_ friends and peers.

Helga showed an amused and at the same time condescending expression, without paying any attention to the grim look Artair gave her. «I'm sorry to break your virginal dreams, child, but no woman puts me under, not even in bed.»

She reserved a few seconds to reflect calmly, casting yet another glance at McTavish before returning to the girl with one hand raised on her chin, her index finger up in a clear ponderous nod.

«I have another proposal, then. Nothing to do with sex. Where is your instructor?»

«I already told you I don't know. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you», replied the hacker's niece, a slightly more serious voice.

Helga nodded again, a slight nod of consent that indicated how much she was actually only considering what to say in response. «Sure, it's so obvious. You have a deep respect for the man who trained you...», she smiled.

«What do you want with Damian?», Artair stepped in.

The woman crossed her arms to her chest with an amused gesture, aware that she had probably touched the right keys. She moved a few steps towards her closest men, interested in being able to observe from that short distance and without much trouble the small group formed by her three guests.

«Tell me where Fisher is and we might consider the exchange fair», she replied, watching BlueDevil.

Selene's reaction wasn’t long in coming. She leaned forward with a movement readily intercepted by her uncle, with those fast steps of which he himself was surprised. He blocked her by an arm, a simple touch that had the power not to make her really advance towards the woman.

«No fucking way!», the young lady blurred, her expression tense.

Artair knew that his strength was by no means enough to hold his niece still, physically he would never be able to do anything like that. He understood that it was she who had decided to listen to him, it was Selene who had given him that immediate _surrender_.

The evident intentions of the girl had been almost an invitation to the bodyguards, it was enough that one of them pointed a rifle at her to get Adam to intervene.

He had turned around so quickly that Helga jumped on the spot, turning his back to the Scots to keep the mercenary who had better raised his weapon under control. The nanoblade on his right arm was exposed along its entire length, shining in the light of the chandelier and attracting the anxious glances of others — the sleeve of his coat lifted by the well-tested mechanism.

Hartmann raised her hands in a canonical sign of peace, moving a few more steps back towards her men but ordering them not to meddle. She took a gloomy look at the hacker.

«Tell the clank to put his claws back, Artair. My employees don't like being in the same room with a wrench, especially after the events of two years ago.»

Jensen felt a delicate pressure on his limb, despite his coat and even though his arm was no longer made of flesh and blood. When he turned slightly to look at the fingers just above his elbow, he realized that it was Selene's hand that was touching him.

He followed with his gaze concealed by the shields, with a hint of amazement, the girl's arm protected by the fake leather jacket, going up to the shoulder where the purple braid had moved, and then continued on the female face. She took a quick look at him, yet another silent request.

Adam retracted the nanoblade, feeling the fingers of BlueDevil's niece slipping inaccurately on the sleeve of the coat back in place. He felt the warmth of the female palm touching the back of his carbon hand, squeezing it imperceptibly, like if she had wanted to linger in that sudden caress longer than necessary.

Jensen ignored the feeling he had just experienced, he ignored that heat recorded by the sensors, which remained latent where he felt it. It had been a gentle and safe contact, something he hadn't experienced in a long time. Fleeting and quick, but he knew he wasn't wrong.

What was Selene trying to tell him?

Helga crossed her arms to her chest again, shaking her head. «I don't want to hurt Damian Fisher, I just want to offer him a job. That job which, _of course_ », she chuckled over the words, «none of you can do in exchange for the information you ask me for.»

«What's this about?», Selene asked, suddenly taking one step towards the blonde. «I won't _sell_ Damian for the information we want. I'm here. Ask me to do whatever task you think you can only entrust to him.»

Artair gazed out his eyes, so shocked by the words he had just heard that he lost precious seconds of lucidity before finding meaning in his thoughts. «No, no way!»

He moved to grab his niece by the arm, but she quickly moved away, determined to bridge the gap completely with their host, while some guards held their rifles better in their hands.

It was only Helga's gesture that forbade them to intervene. The woman looked at Selene with a curious nod, her dark eyes slightly half-open in that attentive frown.

«Trust me, child», the woman began. «It would be much more pleasant and easier for you and me to spend the night together, avoiding further waste of time.»

The girl denied imperceptibly, the expression much more serious than expected. «I won't sleep with you, Hartmann. I'll be more useful to you if you treat me exactly the way you plan to treat my instructor. The only condition I ask is that you don’t force my uncle and the man who came with us to stay here.»

«Selene, no!», BlueDevil intervened.

McTavish risked screwing up right then and there, Jensen knew it. He had to get closer to him than the girl, ready to hold him by the arm, because he knew it was necessary to appease the obvious complaint of the hack first. After Artair, he would also think of that rash _little girl_.

Helga only took a quick look at the other two guests, returning to the young woman in a second. A sudden sound, the notification of a vu-phone, made her stand up slightly, surprising Selene herself, who tried to loosen the rigidity of her shoulders by moving back a step. She watched the woman take the phone from the pocket of the matching suit jacket and hastily read the message that had just been sent to her.

When resting the device under her arm, always holding it between her fingers, Hartmann simply smiled at the hacker's niece with less emphasis than the amused sneers of several minutes earlier.

«Let's do this way», she started. «Since I don't want to create any more animosity between your uncle and me, just show me what you're capable of. And keep in mind», she added in a firm tone, looking especially at Artair, «I'm not saying that after the demonstration I want you to do the job I had in mind for Damian Fisher. I'm genuinely curious as to why you think you can take over for your mentor. Think of it as... A little show to brighten my evening.»

Selene observed her for a long time, legitimately doubtful, certain that, according to the last sentence she had just heard, it was again some sexual request. Probably Hartmann must have sensed her piqued response through her annoyed expression, taking up the word again without giving her any more time.

«There's a gym on this floor, we passed it when we were in the hallway», she added, nodding to the next door. «You may not have noticed, but there's an area inside where my men practice hand-to-hand combat.»

She took a moment to probe the expressions of the three, amazed that McTavish wasn’t tempted to jump down her throat. She looked with ill-concealed interest at the robotic hand of the aug perfectly hooked to BlueDevil's elbow curve. For a second Helga wondered what role that _wrench_ really played in the small group formed by her guests.

«Face some of my people in an unarmed fight», the woman continued, staring at Selene. «With your bare hands. You're not allowed to kill anyone, let alone break their bones too cripplingly.» She paused, giggling openly. «Maybe I can allow you a few broken noses and a couple of fewer teeth, but that means they're entitled to hurt you as well.»

Selene silenced for a very long time, openly scrutinizing even the amused expressions of the bodyguards behind the woman.

She didn’t want to divert her attention from Hartmann and her _toy soldiers_ , she didn’t want to give the impression that she needed to find consent and comfort on her relative's face. She knew that, in all likelihood, she would find neither one nor the other. Her uncle was certainly not enthusiastic about that possibility.

«Swear it to me», replied the girl. «Swear to me that you won't take back your word. Or I swear I'll kill you and your men.»

It was Hartmann's turn to burst out laughing in her face, followed by her bodyguards. «Yeah, all right, all right. I promise you.»

«No...», whispered BlueDevil, much lower than expected.

His niece had heard him, and precisely because of that weak word uttered with disbelief she didn’t want to give him time to say anything else, to add something that could have made the woman change her mind.

«All right, then. I accept», she said with the outstretched hand to hold Helga's.

«No, Selene», the relative intervened again, freeing himself from Adam's grip only to take the young girl by the arm and pull her towards him. «Not this...»

Selene had no difficulty in gently bringing him within walking distance of Jensen, sure to keep her uncle away from the landlady. She looked at him with an uncertain expression, not at all sure that she could convince him not to do anything rash.

«Trust me», the girl murmured in response, looking into his familiar warm and kind eyes.

«It's that _bitch_ I don't trust», BlueDevil said, not caring to be heard from Hartmann as well.

«Easy, with the words, McTavish...», chuckled the blonde, totally relaxed even after that insult.

Jensen knew that Artair was only interested in talking to his niece at the moment, he would no longer try to _attack_ Helga in any way. He had listened to the woman's proposal in silence, analyzing in his mind what to say and what to do.

He found only one solution.

Selene's gaze was the mute request not to meddle in her choice, because she was suddenly watching him, perhaps sensing what the agent was about to say.

Hope in vain for the hacker's niece.

«I volunteer instead of the girl», said the ex-SWAT, turning his face to Helga. «Even for the task you wanted to entrust to her instructor.»

Selene stared at him in dismay, almost on the point of standing in front of him to stop him somehow in advance, as if Adam could have done everything Hartmann wanted in a few seconds.

«No!», Selene's protest vibrated in her upset expression, visible to Adam for a few more moments, at least until she turned to the other woman and moved back to her. «It's me you want to see to fight, not him. Leave him out of this.»

Hartmann nodded briefly, an amused sneer on her lips. «The _baby girl_ is right. I'm not interested in seeing an aug fight, not least because it wouldn't be fair to my men», she confirmed in a mellifluous voice. «In any case, Selene has already accepted my request. A deal is a deal.»

It was at that point that Artair moved quickly towards the woman, overtaking her niece, passing by her side. He finally positioned himself in front of Hartmann and faced her with a gloomy expression, his face slightly tilted downwards, since he was a little taller than four inches.

The bodyguards raised their rifles almost at the same time, but the landlady calmed their tempers with a simple movement of her hands.

BlueDevil observed the woman for a few moments before shaking his head and smiling in response, a smile that Helga herself found unusual, almost freezing.

She had expected a much more _aggressive_ reaction, something that her men would have resolved very easily. It was the first time she saw McTavish give her that look, like if she was the one in danger. Like if the man wasn't afraid of anything.

A person not at all afraid of the prospect of losing everything could create a lot of problems, Helga knew that. She had worked her way tooth and nail through such individuals, especially to earn her place in that treacherous world.

Artair risked swimming in very deep water if he was going to challenge her like that.

«All right», he hissed. «All right, Hartmann. My niece will teach your men a lesson, but if any of them attacks her with a weapon, trust me, he'll end up in the hospital with more than a broken nose and a few missing teeth», Artair said.

He waited for the blonde's nod of condescension and only turned around after he had confirmed in turn. He returned to his niece a couple of steps behind, looking at her with an expression divided between worry and atavistic confidence. He raised a hesitant hand, finally resting it on the girl's shoulder.

«I trust you, Selene. Never believe otherwise», he told her in a low voice, in response to what she had asked him a few minutes earlier.

The young lady gave him a slight, almost shy smile. She lifted a palm to gently squeeze with her fingers for a few moments an imprecise point on her uncle's arm. She moved away shortly afterward to reach the exit of the room, remembering perfectly where the gym was.

It was then that Adam stood before her, blocking her passage with his simple presence. Selene had imagined it, she was sure that the agent wouldn’t merely voice his dissent.

There was something that made her realize that Jensen wasn't there for his personal gain. Something in the man's attitudes had given her a sense that for him it wasn’t just a request for _work_ from the Collective — of which she was certain the man was actively involved.

She had seen it in the readiness with which Adam had been willing to protect Artair on that occasion, several days earlier, and had seen it that same afternoon there in Hartmann's villa to protect even her. He was also trying to do so during those silent seconds. He had been keeping an eye on her ever since they had entered the house, ever since those two guards had whispered obscene and vulgar remarks to her.

A couple of hours earlier, she told him she wanted to trust him. Is it possible that she could actually do that? Could she really count on someone while she was in the _enemy camp_?

She didn't know Jensen's fighting skills, she wasn't sure she could rely on the man from that point of view, but his intentions seemed _absurdly_ clear.

It was the first time she met someone who seemed sincerely willing to be read, to be understood. She wasn't sure if he was aware of it, but it was the feeling that Selene felt the most.

The ex-SWAT and the girl looked at each other for a long time, silent demands that neither of them needed to voice. It was paradoxical to see how much they both really wanted the same thing.

«Artair...», the agent called him, exhaling visibly, the only cautious nod he let others see. «You can't really let your niece...»

BluDevil denied with his head almost instantly, flanking the young girl and looking into the face of the ex-SWAT. «Trust what you will see. You must see it with your own eyes. You still don't... You haven't seen what she's capable of.»

«I don't care», replied Jensen, the tone so surprised it was a little louder than expected. «She's just a little girl, Artair. She's just a little girl. She doesn't have to do anything that woman wants. She shouldn't even be here!»

Selene raised her head, grazing her blue eyes at that reaction which, if she had to be completely honest, she feared she would see in her uncle, not in the man who had accompanied them.

McTavish once again showed a quick nod of dissent, advancing one step further shortly after casting a glance at Hartmann's bored expression. «Not now. Let's discuss this once we get out of here.»

«So, let's just go, then!», Adam continued.

«Don't do it», Selene blurted out, standing between the two.

She was so close to the man that she forced him to go back a couple of steps, staring in amazement, tilting his head down considerably. The young woman's face was caught in a tense grimace, but not really bothered: she kept asking him to step aside, not to intervene.

«Don't you dare», she said, «putting my uncle's life in danger like that. You know you're gonna get us all killed.»

Jensen remained a moment too long in silence, bending his face towards a shoulder in an uncertain gesture, a little unprepared for that physical and verbal response from the girl.

«Selene... I...»

It was the first time he called her by her first name. Maybe he'd only done it on one other occasion with BlueDevil, but never with her. He had always called her with that _little-girl_ grumpy nickname, with the obvious intent of clarifying who among them was the oldest person — and theoretically the one with the most decision-making power and experience.

He hadn’t taken into account that sudden maturity, the thoughtful reasonableness with which the young woman seemed able to evaluate all the pros and cons of that situation. Even if she had been reckless, Selene had always maintained control of _events_ that Jensen had taken for granted wasn’t there.

He was wrong, and he couldn't say whether it was a credit to the girl or a simple mistake in his observation.

«Please», Selene added in a slightly lower tone. «I _really_ want to trust you...»

Jensen exhaled for a long time, a deep sigh just accompanied by a slight movement of the head, as if he was about to deny it again in response.

He looked at Artair from beyond the shields, simply lifting his head towards the other man. The two stared at each other for a few moments, the agent's hidden eyes weren’t visible, but one could easily guess the worried frown that sharpened the expression lines on his forehead.

When he let slip a rapid movement of the carbon hands, almost a direct invitation to Selene to go ahead in the hallway before him, Hartmann clapped her palms with a dry noise, attracting everyone's attention.

«Are you finished with the ceremonies?», asked Helga, moving towards the door. «And they say chivalry is dead. Fortunately, female emancipation still prevails.»

Adam barely held back the grunted sound in response to that comment, overwhelmingly annoyed by that woman and her demands. Part of himself began to wish he was in that place alone; he would have much more _freedom_ of action.

When they walked past the gym, Selene hadn't noticed how big it actually was, equipped with all the tools needed to keep fit. A rectangular, slightly elevated ring had been set up in the more distant area, much larger than the one used in UFC.

Helga had taken her seat in a comfortable armchair, one leg overlapping the other and playing distractedly with her vu-phone between her fingers as if she were sunbathing by the pool; she was constantly protected by the usual five men, while six others, who had already been in that large room since before their arrival, stood behind the trio of guests, their weapons firmly secured to their hips.

Selene got rid of the fake leather jacket, ready to leave it on the floor, but her uncle offered to keep it for her. The two threw a silent glance at each other, interrupted only when she also deprived herself of the petrol green sweatshirt, revealing under it a long-sleeved black cotton shirt with a round neckline, tucked inside the jeans for a few inches.

When the young woman handed over her other clothing to her relative, she moved next to Adam, looking for his eyes always hidden by the shields.

«Keep an eye on my uncle, no matter what happens. Don't let him intervene», she said, slightly softly. «He knows what I can do, he knows how strong I am, but... I'm still his niece. He won't be totally indifferent if any of them can hit me.»

Jensen let slip a slight grimace, denying it imperceptibly. «You don't say?», he replied in a subtly harsh tone. «And who's to stop me if I decide to intervene?», he added, leaning down slightly to scrutinize her.

«I know you won't», the girl told him, staring back at him.

She raised her hands on the back of her neck to better adjust her hair in anticipation of the fight, straightening her face slightly — she had been forced to visibly tilt it upwards to look at the ex-SWAT.

«If you act rashly», Selene added, «the first person in danger will be my uncle. Please don't risk his life like this», she continued calmly, even though her blue eyes seemed to tremble just before adding the rest. «I can't lose him too...»

Adam only began to sense from that last sentence what the girl's real motives really were. Artair was the only family Selene had. Protecting him meant helping her most of all.

«Fuck», Jensen said, denying it with the head. «All right, but we'll discuss it further. This is a very bad idea...»

The girl just smiled, closing the bun on the back of her neck with a very tight elastic hairband. «Not as much as what we're going to do in the future.»

«Oh, yeah? And what will we do in the future? I have my legitimate doubts that we will find ourselves in a similar situation again», continued the agent, taking a look at the others.

McTavish looked at them with a slightly disorientated expression, as if on the one hand he was delighted that his niece was stalling but also doubtful that Helga might not be particularly enthusiastic about it.

Hartmann just sat and waited, her lips straight in a firm line and her hands tight on her vu-phone. She often checked the device, noticed Jensen.

Selene continued to show a subtly amused expression, lowering her arms along her hips. «Oh, trust me. We'll go to Russia, enter a guarded military complex... Those things there.»

Adam gave her a long, _hidden_ , silent look, distracted for a moment by her answer and her unpredictably cheerful tone, even if kept low so as not to be heard by others.

That was the perfect time for Selene to tease Jensen.

«Were you thinking of other situations? Something much more pleasant, perhaps? We could find time for that, too...», she told him just before she walked away towards the ring, another quick wink and a slender smile to accompany her.

Adam shook his head in a shocked gesture, his mouth slightly open in a motion of amazement that he couldn’t control.

Did she _really_ say that? How could that _little girl_ flirt so openly with him, an older man? At a moment like that? And within walking distance of her uncle?

He would have liked to answer her in a tone to make that amused grin on her face disappear, but he could only observe her while she had her back to him. He took a quick look at Artair to make sure the hacker hadn't heard her and swallowed the slight whiff of embarrassment at the bottom of his throat.

With a quick leap, placing one hand on the edge, Selene climbed up to the exposed area of that part of the gym, moving slightly in the direction of the center, finally turning her eyes to the landlady.

«Anytime, Helga», the girl said.

The blonde barely smiled, raising one hand in a nod, her legs still crossed and the vu-phone in the other fist.

«Get Donovan's men down here», she said to one of her people.

The bodyguard nodded fast, turning quickly to an intercom hooked to the wall near the double-leaf door. He stopped for a moment, turning with a doubtful expression.

«How many of them, ma'am?»

Hartmann smiled again, her eyes chained to the blue ones of the young girl on the ring. «All twelve.»

Selene grinned in response, turning to move just in a circle, one slow step behind the other, her face bent over her feet covered with boots. She lifted her head to exhale and loosen the muscles of her shoulders with rotating movements, the last nod to Artair before calling to herself the concentration necessary to overcome that symbolic _fight_ as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the parts that led me to insert a warning at the beginning of the chapter weren't too heavy but, trust me, there will be bloody scenes (and sex scenes) really WIDELY described in the following updates; already in the seventh chapter, there will be a violent fight scene quite detailed.  
> And I hope the way I try to get Selene to approach Adam is easily understood. I realize that she can be sometimes childish, especially in the opening chapters, but the truth is that Selene is just very impulsive and emotional. And she has learned to act often with apparent superficiality.  
> In fact, I'd say she's a bit like the character of Dante from the original Devil May Cry saga. A little bit boastful, a little arrogant, but underneath it all, she's a big softie with a heart of gold.
> 
> Well, enough with the tediousness.  
> Thank you again for reading this story of mine.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene finally shows what she can do. More than confronting Helga Hartmann's men, she knows she has to convince Adam not to intervene for any reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight presence of strong language. A widely described scene of physical violence, with possible gore elements for those who are easily impressionable. Cigarette and alcohol use.

The first fighter who came into the ring to face Selene was the classic big muscular man, full of tattoos and with shaved hair, a stereotype so ridiculous and forced that she smiled openly.

He wore a gray tank top and mimetic cargo pants, showing off several scars on his massive exposed arms. The arrogant expression on his square face was that of someone who hadn't suffered enough defeat, certainly not from a girl 1,4 feet shorter than him — he was even taller than Jensen.

«Hey, _little doll_ », began the fighter, pointing at her with quick nods of his hands while looking at his _coworkers_ near the ring. «You know this is a place for big guys?», he continued, causing a couple of laughs.

Selene let slip an amused verse, pointing him out in turn but holding a firmer position than he did, moving instead as if he were on hot coals, a clear sign of how eager he was to show others his _skills_.

«Why are you here, then?», she answered.

The young woman's phrase caused as many subdued giggles, a slight smile even on Helga's lips, but many quickly turned into words of incitement to start fighting.

Adam and Artair took a simple look at each other and went straight back to the girl. They kept a cautious silence and a firm composure within walking distance between them. McTavish needed Jensen to stay relatively close to him, and the agent needed to keep an eye on him. The situation could have gotten drastically worse in a matter of moments.

«Little bitch», murmured Hartmann's man in a slightly fiercer tone, an eyebrow arched on his forehead furrowed with a wrinkle of expression. «I won't treat you with gloves just because you're a little girl. It'll be rough.»

Adam tightened the lip line surrounded by the beard for a moment. The sound of that sentence rekindled in him the venomous desire to point out how much, in his presence, such actions would never have happened.

Selene squeezed into her shoulders as if the threat was in no way fearsome. She took a quick look at the relative and the agent and then turned again to the stranger.

«It's not a problem. I like it rough.»

Artair brought a hand to his face, a slight hint of exasperation promptly hidden with that gesture. He was too worried to really care about the nonsense his niece could say to provoke someone, especially if it was clear allusions very little veiled.

Adam, on the other hand, was still motionless and silent, even though he still had that thought in his mind, the doubt that Selene was so arrogant in order to conceal her nervousness.

The fighter puffed in response, snapping with all his bulk to attack the girl frontally. Her movement was weighted, not deliberately fast as if she wanted to give everyone time to look at her.

For Jensen she was incredibly slow; for his eyes and his reflexes, the girl was just _playing around_. He recognized when there was a clear intent to use a little theatricality in a physical confrontation, but he wasn’t at all surprised that it was the young lady who showed that mocking behavior.

Selene spun on herself in a half-turn, raising her left leg to hit the man directly on the neck with the back of her boot. She had him literally bounce a short distance away in a lateral somersault, letting him land with a noisy thud on the floor of the ring, motionless.

The silence that fell in the gym allowed everyone to hear the slight painful moan of the man who had just been hit.

Adam was still impassive, arms crossed over his chest. His mind considered a remote possibility, what McTavish had warned him to put some kind of _faith_ in.

Maybe he was really wrong, maybe Selene's behavior wasn’t arrogance dictated by nervousness. It was _something else_.

«Next», exclaimed the young lady, looking at Helga.

The blonde just smiled, raising her index and middle finger of one hand to order the following number of opponents to face her.

Two men reached her on the ring slightly away from each other, in a combined attack without really being coordinated. The one on the right moved faster, charging a fist, but he was landed with a counter move so lightning fast that his body hit the floor with a frightening noise. The other hesitated for a few moments, a bad reaction that reserved him a powerful blow on the sternum with the palm open, causing the fighter to move well beyond the edge of the raised level, on the hard linoleum of the large room.

Selene twirled her head in a slow, relaxed nod, pushing with one foot the unconscious body of the second man, too close to her — yet another intent to be brazen and almost bored.

Helga moved her raised hand in a serious gesture, allowing the men called to fight to attack altogether. It was at that point that the girl moved towards the center of the ring, inciting the remaining fighters to face her openly.

The fourth man came almost running to her, in a vain attempt to grab her by the shoulders; she simply blocked him with one foot against his chest, bringing him to the ground as her leg lowered. The fifth man, now quite close enough, tried to punch her in the face, but the young woman promptly dodged, bending down, and then responded with an attack from the bottom to the top.

The sixth one found himself thrown sideways with a sliding kick and Selene was so fast that she rose while the man was still in mid-air; she hit him in the belly with the other leg, turning around and sending him away in a painful rale.

The seventh was stuck with his arm against the ribs of the young lady in a firm grip, while she dodged the lateral attack of the eighth man, hit shortly afterward on the face so hard as to see a few drops of blood from the nose; the girl finally lifted the nearby fighter on her shoulders as if he weighed nothing and threw him a couple of feet away.

The ninth had time to carry out a handful of punches, all skillfully avoided, but at the first wrong movement, Selene took advantage of the force applied by the man to accompany the thrust towards herself, go around him along the outstretched arm and hit him in the back of the neck with an elbow.

The tenth threw himself at her head down in that fleeting moment of distraction, grabbing her by the waist and throwing her to the ground; as soon as she touched the floor with her back — Artair's faint worried verse reached her ears despite the excitement of the moment — Selene reversed her position by placing one knee on the man's chest and struck him in the face with a precise blow, leaving him unconscious.

Finding herself bent on one leg gave the eleventh fighter an ephemeral advantage, close enough to hit her in the face with a hook from up to down, almost on the tattoo of the seahorse. The slight recoil made her turn on her side simply to discharge the force of the fist, but actually, Selene felt nothing at all. The man grabbed her from behind, trying to lock her arms above her head and lift her a little.

She was punched in the belly by the twelfth fighter, a second punch against the ribs and a third on the diaphragm line — all this while Artair held his niece's clothing in his hands, paralyzed.

The pain should have knocked her out, she should have felt nausea and difficulty breathing. The first thing she had learned as a child was how to receive hits, although over time her abilities and her innate resistance had done the rest.

She leveraged the weight of the body behind her and hooked the frontal man's head between her ankles. All she needed was a simple effort of her back to swirl in mid-air, freeing herself from the grip that had blocked her and causing the individual who had hit her to collapse into a disheveled pose.

Selene found herself again bent over one knee and turned towards the eleventh _toy soldier_ ; she watched him go back a few steps as he babbled words in Czech, totally unable to hide the horror-filled look he was giving her. She let slip a small smile, just a corner of her lips raised in that subtly macabre nod.

She quickly sprang towards him and grabbed him by the face, lifting him in the air with one arm and finally bringing him against the floor with a deaf noise, the poor unfortunate man's legs suspended for a few moments before collapsing linearly.

When the girl straightened up, her breath wasn’t broken, her shoulders showed no signs of fatigue or deep breaths, she had no sore arms or legs, let alone a sore abdomen or face.

As she turned towards Helga, her young face wasn’t contracted into a grimace of fatigue or frenzy but was lit instead by disarming vitality and a spasmodic desire that vibrated beneath her skin.

Hartmann slightly waved her head as being watched, taking a deep breath just before taking a quick look at McTavish and the augmented man.

The two had surprisingly remained in place even when the girl seemed on the verge of losing the fight. Only Artair had been the most visibly worried, often clutching jacket and sweatshirt between his fingers or barely holding back any faint apprehension verse.

«Do you want more?», the woman asked, staring at the Scotsman.

Selene approached the edge of the ring, taking care not to step on the men unconscious in any part of their bodies.

«What do you offer in return?», she asked clear, fists closed along the hips, a quick look at her uncle and Jensen.

She only needed that brief eye contact to notice the anxious expression of the relative and to see in Adam inscrutable immobility: it was difficult to establish whether the agent was surprised, upset, or, even worse, disgusted.

Part of her never got used to how much horror she could cause in people who didn't know her strength and abilities. She knew that Jensen had constantly doubted her fighting skills — until that moment. After that night, he would have no reason to do so.

But at what price?

Making herself perfectly visible for what she had been created, planned, and serviced kept people away from Selene. Actually, she did. It was a way of not witnessing what would happen next, the certainty that sooner or later no one would be able to bear what she really was.

Helga hesitated a couple of seconds, her hands softly resting on her thighs. She got up from her comfortable armchair after placing her vu-phone on the small table nearby, approaching the ring with a careful step, finally gazing at the girl from bottom to top, a couple of fingers slipping on the raised level in a gentle caress.

«Show me what you can do against one last enemy», the woman proposed, «and in the future, you can ask me any favor. Anything you wish. I'll do everything I can to make the best of it.»

Selene wondered why the blonde was acting in such an unusual way, and the answer appeared in her mind with extreme clarity: she wanted to grant her that fake _truce_ , that unexpected willingness as if the girl was in control of the whole situation.

The young lady wasn’t naive and knew that Helga couldn’t be stupid enough to believe otherwise. She also knew what it would mean to look at Artair, from the point of view of the landlady.

Uncertainty, doubt, the feeling of needing someone to decide for herself.

It was true, Selene needed her uncle, but Hartmann didn't have to understand how important he was to her. Not only because of their parental bond but because of everything Artair meant to his niece.

One of the few fixed points in her life.

«I accept», she said.

Helga smiled quietly, turning to her bodyguards to return to her chair. «Move your coworkers. They must not remain in the ring.»

Those words aroused a precise whiff of alarm in Selene's thoughts, sure that she would unmask the woman's real aims without much trouble.

There was something in the blonde's behavior that made her think she had some trick up her sleeve but wasn't at all enthusiastic about using it against her. It was just a latent feeling, her intuition suggesting that even the mere proposal to offer her a favor in return for fighting another enemy, was a means to an entirely different end.

Selene would have been at her _game_.

A means to an end in turn.

In that brief silence that followed Helga's words, Artair had remained in the same spot next to Jensen. He couldn’t avoid it; he too had been caught by the same sordid feeling of alarm that had surfaced in his niece's mind.

He turned his head in a slow gesture from Hartmann to Selene a couple of times, finally taking a few steps in the direction of the blonde. The woman blocked him with a gesture of her hand, turning around to face him with a grimace, while the six men who were in charge of keeping an eye on the ex-SWAT and him raised their weapons.

«Stay in your place and don't interfere», she hissed, the voice made tense by something that wasn’t simple disapproval of seeing her men fall one after the other. «The _baby girl_ has already accepted.»

«Who's the last fighter she'll face?», the hacker asked, freezing himself with his arms slightly raised.

Adam, behind him, moved slowly to get closer to McTavish.

The agent feared that the woman's response wouldn’t please the other man at all. He wondered how he would prevent Artair from acting imprudently if he was the first to doubt what he could do, driven by the sudden impulse to intervene. He had come close to that several times, especially when he had seen the girl in _apparent_ difficulty.

His mind considered impossible what he had seen Selene do: she wasn’t augmented, she _could_ not move like that, she _could_ not have the strength she had clearly shown, she _could_ not be capable of the speed with which she had moved. She _could_ not show so calmly and resolutely that expression typical of those who had no fears or doubts in battle.

Still, how could Jensen deny that evidence?

It had been necessary to see it with his own eyes, but the ex-SWAT continued to be sure that the young girl shouldn’t be there at all, facing those men, dealing with that woman, with that unhealthy ambiance.

Just because she claimed she could get through that didn’t mean it was right for her to live something like that. It just wasn't right.

Selene let the other men finish moving the unconscious bodies of their coworkers, some visibly upset if they got too close to her.

Helga returned to the chair that had been occupied just before, taking her seat as she retrieved the vu-phone from the small table nearby, one look at the device and one look at the girl.

«It is said that Damian Fisher, your instructor, thanks to his experience in the field, carried out missions for his homeland even on his own, before abandoning his military career. It is said that even now, more than fifty years old, he is much more lethal and prepared than when he was in his thirties.»

The woman took a few moments to linger in a long pause, looking at the screen on her phone. She pressed a sequence on the digital keyboard, activating the opening of a hidden passage in the wall beyond the ring.

Selene turned with a barely uncertain expression, more than anything else dictated by a sort of bizarre curiosity. Just before her, Artair and Adam had turned to the same spot almost simultaneously, observing a few moments in advance what had been kept hidden in that narrow space.

The bot who jumped into the ring with a silent movement had a vaguely arachnoid shape, even though it was equipped with only four steel limbs of equal size, standing on the lower ones as if they were legs. It was almost 7,55 feet, long in the lower part of the structure but much more massive in the upper one, probably protected at _vital_ points by a breastplate made of advanced material.

The blonde turned to look at McTavish, her lips a straight and serious line. «You know what happens if you take another step, or if both of you take another step», she suggested in a firm tone, also addressing the agent. «Hinder this fight somehow, and I will order my men to shoot. And I will also arm the robot with a command by my vu-phone.»

Artair barely held back an expletive, clenching his fists against his hips. «Hartmann, you can't...»

«Yes, I can», she interrupted him.

«Uncle.»

Selene's voice had been slightly lower, her body facing the artificial enemy in front of her, intent on not letting it out of her sight even for a moment.

«It's all right», she added calmly. «How much freedom do I have this time?»

It was obvious that the question was addressed to Helga, she didn't need to look at her to know that the woman was listening too.

The landlady just smiled, nodding a single time. «Anything you wish.» She waved a hand vaguely, pointing at the bot. «Honestly, I bought this _toy_ to protect my property, but I never had a chance to use it. My men have always been incredibly prepared to do their duty.»

The blonde let slip a hoarse throat verse, bothered by the harassing thought in her mind. She let others share in her reflection, taking up the word as if it tasted disgusting on the tongue.

«And yet, a little girl has now managed to knock out my best guards. Are they the ones who are incompetent, or are you some kind of prodigy? I know that you're not augmented, I made sure of that when you entered the villa, but is there really a chance that you've already surpassed, despite your young age, the skills of your instructor?»

Selene simply inhaled deeply, without giving their host an answer. She kept her blue eyes on the bot, still and motionless, waiting for a command from its owner.

«Destroy the robot with your bare hands», Helga said. «Prove to me how deep is your devotion to the man who made you the fighter you are. Destroy it to _protect_ the man who shaped you, who passed on his teachings to you, but to whom you clearly passed something as well. Because a man like Fisher would never abandon the pleasure of war without good reason.»

Selene couldn't control the slight trembling of her hands, waving her face and turning slightly towards the blonde. She struck her with her gaze, a look so intense and burning that Helga was shaken by a shiver.

«What else has he given you besides his knowledge?», added the woman, still sure to be totally untouchable. «And what did _you_ give Fisher in return for his retirement from the _market_? Yourself? It's not just devotion that drives you to protect him, is it? How much and what did Damian take from you? Your body? Your soul? Or both?»

«Hartmann», snarled the girl.

She pronounced that word as if it came directly from the bottom of her throat, a raging verse of fury that made her voice vibrate as if it were someone else's.

The neon lights in the gym sizzled slightly, a dry, rapid hum that stopped so quickly that everyone in the room doubted whether they really heard it.

Artair had chosen never to break eye contact with his niece, but at that singular event, he couldn't help but take a look at the agent next to him. He found Adam at his side, the frowning expression made even more inscrutable by the shields. And that obvious uncertainty that he knew well what triggered it. By _whom_ it was triggered. Even though he couldn't look Jensen in the eye, he knew how the ex-SWAT was observing the niece.

Helga smiled slightly, raising a hand as a sign of peace. «All right, these aren’t questions to ask a young lady, not with a relative in the way», she justified herself in a relaxed tone. «Show me what you're _really_ capable of», and pressed an interactive button on the vu-phone.

Being turned a little towards the woman cost Selene a very brief moment of distraction, allowing the machine to attack her abruptly.

She found out late that she didn't have time to dodge, having to parry the hit with her arm. The dense pain that pervaded her limb made her teeth grind in a barely contained moan, on the contrary hearing behind her the much more worried verse of Artair.

She lowered herself to avoid the other mechanical end of the bot, bringing her bare fists against the metal of the carbon armor in a countermove that managed to push the inhuman fighter back in a straight line on the floor.

The robot slowed down its movement by digging two grooves in the ring with its lower limbs, snapping at her as soon as it was able to push forward. Selene dodged a series of attacks with a couple of somersaults, finally responding with a double kick while performing a backward jump.

The automaton was lifted in the air for more than a foot thanks to that move, collapsing on the back of its artificial body in the noisy clash of the metal; the four extremities were placed in a different position to make it move as if it were suddenly on four legs.

The girl ran towards the enemy with greater speed, making a lightning-fast leap that carried her over the machine in a vertical upside-down position. She hooked her hands to one part of the robot and accompanied the rest of her movement, pulling her enemy with her when she returned with her feet on the ground.

What Selene did, snatched a verse of more or less sonorous amazement from all the others: seeing her lift that bot weighing several hundred pounds and then throw it over the ring, against the wall not far away, causing several cracks on it, was quite surprising.

Artair should have been the least shocked by the sight of what his niece had just done. It was a reaction over which he could have no physical control. Very often with her, it was all too easy to forget what she was capable of, to put aside the aim they had set themselves, the battles they intended to lead and win.

In the course of the infiltrations they had carried out, BlueDevil had never really seen his niece in action. He had always followed her from a distance, a guide in her ear that in many circumstances had been of immense help to her. But in a physical struggle, during clashes with guards or soldiers, the man had almost always preferred not to focus too much on what he had been able to hear through the transmitters.

He knew that sooner or later he would see Selene's true potential, but what he also knew was that she was only showing an insignificant ten or twenty percent of her abilities at that moment. It wasn't just about physical strength, stamina, combat skills. Selene's gifts went far beyond that.

The bot leveraged the wall to disengage from it, using its extremities to push itself. It seemed almost staggering on its lower limbs, moving one _step_ behind the other while what could be considered as its head trembled imperceptibly with an electric hiss. It returned to the exposed area of the ring with a shaky run that was coordinated after a few moments.

The girl prepared to attack again, but the robot suddenly moved sideways, sliding into a lowered position. It paralyzed her arm with which she had tried to hit it and pushed her against the floor with a violent thud.

It was at that moment that Selene screamed in pain, a sharp and intense cry that vibrated throughout the gym.

Artair brought his hands to his lips to suffocate against his niece's clothing the groan that he couldn’t hold back, so shocked by that whine that he was paralyzed for a short time. He didn't know how he did it, but he grabbed Adam by the arm, trying to pull him uncomfortably towards himself.

Jensen, if he hadn't had his unshakable self-control and the grafts to stop him instantly, would have been in the ring within a second. That cry ripped out of the girl's mouth, a scream so heartrending and terrible that it was still in his ears, had almost completely extinguished his lucidity.

He would have done anything not to hear that agonizing scream again, but if McTavish hadn't stopped him, Helga wouldn’t have hesitated to keep her word and shoot the hacker first.

The cry of the young lady turned into a rapid choked breath as the bot stretched her arm upwards and prepared to apply that terrible grip to pull it off her shoulder.

Its intentions were so obvious that Selene had no doubts about it, sure that she had to react immediately before it was too late.

She performed a kip-up despite part of her body being obstructed by the automaton, in a slow sequence that made a slight crackling of human bones distinctly audible. Once on her feet, she struck with a powerful fist of her free arm against the side of the enemy.

The successful hit caused a break in the structure of the artificial fighter, literally breaking it in half. The lower part collapsed on the floor without any control, while the upper part tumbled not far away in the ring, still active.

Selene took a breath a little deeper, her right arm hanging slightly back in a position that suggested that her shoulder was broken or dislocated. With a grimace and her eyes totally focused on the remains of the robot, she applied a quick twist to the _injured_ arm with her other hand, making it return to its place in a noisy bone snap that caused some disgust among the Hartmann men.

The bot tried to move away on the two remaining limbs, crawling on the floor and practically giving her its back. It didn't even reach the edge of the ring. The girl was on top of what was left of the robot with a run that wasn't visible to anyone, except barely perceived by Adam's augmented eyes.

One second before she was a couple of feet away from the automaton, the next she was on him like a predator.

Jensen watched the young girl block the inanimate enemy with one foot and bend forward just enough to grab the two mechanical upper limbs in her hands. He watched her pull the artificial extremities towards herself in an effort that caused all the muscles of her back and arms to contract, only to free her chest from an angry scream when she detached them from its steel and carbon body.

The silence that followed filled the room with a muffled void as if somehow the sequence of noises generated by the fight could still be heard in an indistinct echo.

The metallic clash of the robot, Selene's angry scream, the dry tear from the robotic joints. And then again, the metallic clash, Selene's scream, the tear from the joints.

When the girl turned slightly to look at her small audience, her face showed an inscrutable expression. She was as if driven immediately to look for her uncle, and the first thing Artair did was to collapse on his knees, deeply relieved but incredulous.

Helga's men were frozen, motionless, weapons shaking in their hands. The blonde was also upset, her breath coming out in a silent and imprecise rale.

Adam couldn’t remove from his mind the last moments of that fight, the cold ferocity that the young lady had shown in mutilating something inanimate so easily. On very few occasions he had seen such brute force, a companion of men he had crossed on his path even before the grafts.

He looked at Selene and couldn't believe that she had _won_ , the same _little girl_ who had let him into her house, who had offered him coffee, who had sung a song in a private _show_ with a genuine shyness; the same _little girl_ who needed her only relative, who needed to know that Artair was safe; the same _little girl_ who had asked Jensen to see his _alien_ eyes, who had told him an allusive and at the same time innocent joke at a totally inappropriate moment.

He looked at Selene and, despite doubt, despite disbelief, despite the atavistic certainty that the girl didn’t have to face that unhealthy world at all, he knew it was her. It was only her.

There was no point in deceiving himself, believing he was wrong. To deny the evidence meant having no respect for what had happened to her, for what had been done to her. Pretending it wasn't true, meant taking and throwing away like garbage the trust that _little girl_ wanted to put in him.

A form of betrayal that Adam knew well, that he had lived on his skin — in his _flesh_.

The young lady moved a few steps towards the edge of the ring, taking the two mechanical limbs with her, throwing them both at Hartmann's feet in a clangor of steel and frightened verses of the bodyguards.

Her blue eyes narrowed for a moment, a breath a little deeper broke her composure. She jumped off with a mellifluous movement, remaining a second motionless to feel the normal floor beneath her feet and to let go of the slight sensation of dizziness from which she had been caught.

She finally made her way to her uncle without caring about anyone else, and if Hartmann had had any objection to her moving without waiting for any disposition, Selene would have blown her head off, not just her tongue.

Artair stood up on his legs just before being reached, pushing himself forward as if he wanted to hold his niece to himself despite the presence of the jacket and sweatshirt in his slightly shaking hands.

Selene stopped him with a slow nod, watching him silently. That visual exchange was enough to hide the outside world from what was being said without uttering a word. Any source of disturbance would have been erased so as not to undermine their mutual comfort.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

The events after Selene's _victory_ followed, for her, as if in a state of slight dizziness, her mind turned to thoughts that she couldn’t silence, constant marasmus of voices, sounds and emotions.

It wasn't the fighting against the twelve men that made her so quiet and gloomy, nor was it the bot fight. Though her shoulder complained of some lawful pain and her body was still vibrating with adrenaline, what she was thinking about was something else entirely, and it was absolutely nothing good or positive.

She was perfectly aware of that.

Helga had risked awakening the dormant _beast_ altogether. Perhaps she had, unfortunately, already done so.

Hartmann, several minutes necessary to regain control over her breathing, also recovered the ability to formulate orders, sending one of her men to take the entire file, digital and paper, requested by Artair regarding the sale of the Belltower structure.

In the meantime, BlueDevil had stayed with his niece. He had returned her the clothing in the proper order to put the sweatshirt on first and then the black jacket, watching her wear them while she kept her eyes down and her lip line straight and serious. She didn't have the usual bright complexion on her soft cheeks, only the tattoo of the seahorse that lit up her pale skin with that design.

Artair would have wanted to touch his niece on one shoulder, in that simple comforting contact that the girl seemed to need. Yet it was only she who had chosen not to linger in that kind of affection, not in front of those people.

He could understand her, perhaps sensed that actually behind that decision there was a need not to show what in the eyes of Hartmann and her men would be a weakness. The simple idea that it was that possibility ignited in McTavish a devastating need to kill the woman.

Adam was standing a few steps away from the Scots, his arms along his hips, his coat tightly closed on his belly, and his face turned towards the bodyguards and the blonde still sitting on the armchair, a lighted cigarette between her fingers a bit shaky.

His inscrutable expression, also thanks to the shields, allowed him to probe the surrounding environment with extreme attention, perfectly aware of how actually Hartmann's men had their nerves on edge and threw alarmed glances exclusively at the girl.

He was ready to intervene if any of them couldn't handle the latent tension. He had already _marked_ ten mercenaries and prepared PEPS ammunition in the appropriate arm. He would have also activated the TITAN to move swiftly in front of his two companions, freeing his sight to take action at the same time.

Part of himself, however, was deeply eager to ask Selene how she felt at that moment. Although he had only just met her, he could detect an unusual silence, latent tiredness, not only physical. He could recognize when someone's mind was incredibly exhausted.

That's what he wanted to avoid. She was too young to deal with that kind of situation, no matter if she knocked out twelve trained men and destroyed a combat bot. Her body could have been prepared for such challenges, but her mind was still that of a twenty-two-year-old girl.

At her same age, he was in the police for already a year, busy with his career, but it had been something he had chosen for himself, not a path set by others.

He was planning on talking to Artair again. He knew that what he wanted to say to the hacker wouldn't please Selene at all, but she'd get over it. Maybe he could talk her out of that _war_ that was too big for such a young girl.

Once Hartmann's man in charge of taking all the documents returned to the gym, handing them over to BlueDevil, Artair quickly studied the few sheets of paper to get an idea of what he would find in the digital devices enclosed in the folder. Finally, he took a silent look at Adam, waiting only a few seconds before nodding and walking towards the double door with a slow pace, waiting to hear his niece and the agent behind him do the same.

Jensen didn’t move a single muscle, only interested in staying close to the girl; Selene continued to keep her head slightly bent, her fists tight against her hips and the purple braid freed from the bun, a few locks escaped from the tidy hair.

Adam waited a few moments before lifting a carbon hand on the young lady's shoulder, not completely sure that the contact could be something acceptable between her and him. Part of himself had foreseen it, Selene moved away but not to avoid being touched.

What happened next, Jensen wasn’t completely able to understand it, except relying on the real possibility that she wasn’t only simply strong, agile and mortally capable of killing with her bare hands.

A bizarre electric crackling, the same one heard just before the bot fight, spread in the ears of the ex-SWAT, and when he understood that all the others were able to hear it in the same way, he realized that McTavish had stopped about ten feet from where he and the girl were, the expression terribly worried.

«No, Selene. Don't do it», was the hacker's weak protest.

The bodyguards — the number had risen to almost twenty, among those who had been called to fight, legitimately in pain, and those who had been tasked with protecting Helga and keeping an eye on the three guests — began to tremble on their feet, the large-caliber weapons that fell to the floor in a widespread clangor and in a precise sequence that seemed to expand from the men closest to Selene to those further away. Their eyes twirled slightly upwards, together with the movement of their heads tilted in the same way, in a continuous spasm that forced them to complain as if they were in some persistent but not very severe pain.

The girl approached Hartmann, the only person besides Artair and Adam who didn’t seem to be affected by what was happening to the blonde's henchmen. It wasn't until the agent saw the expression of horror on the woman's face that he realized that Helga was paralyzed by fear and not by what had blocked her mercenaries.

He would have recognized that look of dismay and fear everywhere. The voice of consciousness was trying to scream into his mind that he should do something, intervene. No one deserved to feel such a swallowing terror, a terror capable of preventing even normal breathing.

He watched Helga literally change color, become livid, managed to spot, despite the distance, the frantic beat of her natural heart. She was experiencing such monstrous fear that he wouldn’t be surprised if she was practically about to urinate on herself.

The no longer dormant _beast_ was in front of the blonde, and Jensen decided at that precise moment that staying and watching wasn’t the right choice.

He set off to follow the same steps as Selene, stopping behind her, waiting for that single nod that would make him understand that the young lady was ready to throw herself over the metaphorical abyss.

He wouldn't let her _stain_ herself like that. If Selene wished Helga dead, she should have left that task to him.

The girl bent over the woman very slowly, resting her hands on the armrests, the braid slid over her right shoulder.

«I want to warn you, Hartmann», began so low that it was barely comprehensible. «You don't _know_ Damian Fisher. You don't know anything about him, about his life. Forget about my instructor, forget about my uncle, forget about the man who came with us.»

She reached out her hand to touch the landlady, slipping her fingers over her aristocratic chin to tighten her cheeks firmly, making her get a contracted grimace on her terrified face.

«You'll only _remember_ me, Hartmann. You'll remember me, what I'm doing to your men now. No, it doesn't matter that I beat them in the ring. _You_ », and she grabbed her face roughly to turn her head in the right direction, «you have to see how I'm going to slaughter your little soldiers. They won't even be able to defend themselves, but trust me, they'll be able to feel _everything_.»

Helga burst into tears at that very moment, a faint, choked moan came out of her throat, and Adam advanced a single step, making it perfectly audible to the young girl.

«Selene, stop...», he told her quietly.

She tilted her head only for a second, lowering her blue gaze to an imprecise point on the armchair. She turned the woman's head back towards her so that she could look at her again.

«I should blow your tongue out because of what you said about Damian», the girl continued. «You don't know Damian Fisher!», she added in a much higher tone.

She squeezed her palm a little harder on Hartmann's chin, making her complain loudly about the pain in her jaw, her cheeks grooved by the drooling make-up.

Artair also approached but did so only to place a hand on Jensen's arm, over his coat. The agent took a quick look at the hacker and he replied with a faint nod of denial.

McTavish was telling him not to intervene, not to interrupt what his niece was doing.

«Don't look for Damian, under any circumstances», Selene continued, standing slightly on her back. «You have nothing to say to him and he has no business to do on your behalf. If I find out you're still looking for him, I'll come back here, kill all your men, and then I'll do to you what I did to your _little metal toy_.»

She approached again to peer from that distance at the terrified expression of the blonde, placing herself a few inches from her face and freeing her from the grip of her fingers to rest them on the armrest nearby.

«I'm gonna break your spine, Hartmann, but only so you don't get up on your legs anymore. I'm gonna pull your arms out of your body and watch you bleed to death.»

She paused, lining her lips to one of the host's ears, close enough to shake a lock of blond hair with her breath.

«And don't you dare hide somewhere, because if I need to reclaim the favor you owe me, I _want_ to find you here.»

The silence that followed those terrifying words was interrupted shortly after by Selene's footsteps as she moved towards the double door. She had slipped to the side of Adam and her uncle without even touching or looking at them, moving swiftly towards the exit.

Jensen watched for a few moments Helga and her men, still motionless and paralyzed by whatever the girl had done to them. McTavish exhaled beside him, following his niece as he held the folder he had received under his arm.

When the three of them were in the empty corridor in the basement, heading up the stairs, it seemed as if the villa had fallen into a macabre, grotesque silence. They continued to hear nothing from the people there, not a single noise, not a whispered word. They crossed a few other bodyguards on the first floor, paralyzed and immobile with their weapons on the ground, their heads raised to the ceiling, their mouths wide open and their eyes raised in their orbits.

For a moment, Jensen had believed that after Selene's actions, he would be forced to fight. He feared that he would find himself under attack at any moment, an act of reasonable revenge that it didn't even find time to _mature_. He often looked over his shoulder, sure he should have defended himself at the first opportunity.

«Selene...», Artair's voice was low and uncertain.

The agent turned to look at the two Scots, finding them next to each other, a little further along the last section of the corridor that separated them from the large main entrance door.

BlueDevil barely lifted his free arm in an attempt to rest his hand on his niece's back.

«Don't touch me...», she said, slipping away, staggering for a moment and bumping into the nearby wall.

The young girl's knees gave way slightly, finding support on the wall. McTavish did his best to carry her, heedless of the words she had spoken to him, but the girl replied with a vague nod of denial.

«Please don't touch me... I have to keep _holding them_ until we're out of here», she said again, lifting her head slightly.

Adam quickly approached to replace BlueDevil, his carbon hands ready to reach out under Selene's arms. When she put her fingers in front of her, the man barely felt the pressure of the female fingertips against his belly protected by the dark shirt.

The young lady took one look at him, denying it again with her head. «Please, I don't want you to touch me. I can do it...»

The two men looked at each other for a moment; Jensen silently asked McTavish what to do to help his niece, and Artair denied the man to answer him in the same way, leaving it to her to choose how to proceed.

Selene started moving again first, thanking them slowly with a faint nod of consent. She leaned her hand closer to the wall and continued to walk slowly, one step behind the other.

When they were finally outside the villa, in the small private garden, the cold evening air seemed to reawaken the girl's senses, causing her to speed up her pace towards the gate protected by the guard, even that one paralyzed in a weak choked verse.

Selene clung to the machine with a slight thud, breathing with her head down, her shoulders raised and lowered to accompany that necessary body movement. Artair opened the car with the remote control, turning around the vehicle after a second of hesitation, while Adam remained beside the young woman for a few more moments, waiting.

«Do you want to get in the front seat?», the ex-SWAT asked her, trying to watch her expression.

Selene breathed in and exhaled a couple of times deeply before lifting her face onto the man, a faint smile on her pale lips. «I'm sorry.»

That wasn't the answer he expected to hear.

«For what?», replied the agent, the interrogative expression despite the shields.

She shook her head, waiting a moment. «I realized you don't... That you don't really appreciate sudden physical contact.»

She was referring to when she had stopped him with her palms on his belly, a weak, gentle pressure that should have been a little more decisive and stable. Adam realized that he couldn't be bothered in any way, not even if he wanted to be.

Selene took a few more seconds of silence, opening the back door. «Thank you, but I'd rather stay in the backseat.»

The car ride was quiet.

Artair drove a little faster, the head that from time to time moved in a vague nod of dissent in response to his thoughts, the expression contracted in a grimace of tiredness. Jensen left his carbon hands tight against his knees, his face facing the window next to him.

Selene kept her eyes closed, her forehead just wrinkled and her lips straight without the usual expressiveness, the seahorse on her cheekbone as the only design to give her some _color_. She had untied her braid, wearing the long hair around her shoulders and face, a way of hiding the peripheral view of the other two in the car. She had chosen not to wear the scarf again, which remained where she had left it, along with her vu-phone.

«Uncle...», she murmured, the voice uncertain.

McTavish collected himself in a sudden tremor, glancing in the rear-view mirror to look at his niece, while Adam turned his head between the seats: they both found the hair barrier arranged to hide the girl's expression.

«Yes, what is it?», Artair replied, slowing down the speed a bit.

«On the way, I saw a gas station in the Most direction...» The girl took a break, swallowing. «Would it be... Would it be okay if we stopped for something to eat? If that's okay with you too, Adam.»

«No problem, Selene», the hacker immediately said, quickly activating the car's navigation system to check how much the nearest fast-food restaurant was missing.

Jensen didn't have time to answer before BlueDevil, but he wasn't going to deny the young woman that request.

«Absolutely», he confirmed.

She nodded imperceptibly, one corner of her lips raised into a faint smile, swallowing to find the ability to speak more easily. «Thank you.»

She turned her head back towards the window on her left, moving her hair so as not to be looked at by any of them.

Jensen was intimately upset.

If he thought about how, before arriving at Helga Hartmann's villa, he had been overwhelmed by an amused _annoyance_ for the way Selene had tried to spend the trip by car, he was almost willing to tell her to keep _poking him_ a bit. Perhaps he would have answered her curiosity about the CASIE, and perhaps even retracted the shields to let her look at him.

It upset him to see her in that state, like _turned off_ , with her mind on thoughts she shouldn't have, tired and exhausted. It reminded him of some of the episodes he had experienced first as a child, then as a teenager, and then again as a boy.

His mother had been suffering from depression since she was a little girl and he had experienced her illness as something that wasn’t perfectly clear to him at first. It was only with time that he realized how to stay close to her. A large part of Adam's innate predisposition to protect the others, the weakest, was born out of his affection for Margie.

The journey by car continued for another ten minutes before they saw a lay-by at the side of the road with a structure illuminated by dirty, neon street lamps.

McTavish parked in a remote and slightly more sheltered spot than other vehicles, almost hidden by a row of trucks. He turned shortly afterward towards his niece, looking at her from the space between the two front seats.

«I'd rather stay in the car», said the girl, deciding to take a look at her uncle. «If it's not a problem.»

«Don't worry, Selene, no problem. Hamburger and chips?», Artair made with a kind, understanding smile.

«And a bottle of water, please. No soda», she added with a little smile.

BlueDevil looked at the agent, yet another silent request that the man had to decipher, although it was extremely simple and obvious. The ex-SWAT replied with a barely perceptible nod.

«I'm staying here too, my appearance might make any patrons of the place uncomfortable», said Adam, the expression inscrutable. «You don't have to take something for me too.»

«No problem, Jensen. Don't stand on ceremony», said the Scotsman. «Hamburger and chips?»

After a quick movement of his shoulders and a slight sigh, Adam nodded again. «And a beer, please.»

Artair looked at the man for a few moments before muttering a faint "thank you" between his lips. The fact that the agent had chosen to stay in the car with his niece made him more relaxed. He was certain that Jensen would also check the area on that hidden side of the parking lot to make sure that none of Hartmann's men were following them.

When McTavish was out of the car, Selene squeezed her shoulders, her legs wrapped in her jeans tight against each other; a shiver ran down her back, leaving her again silent and with her face turned away.

Adam once again kept his fists against his knees, sighing faintly to try to get that sudden upset feeling out of his mind. When he opened the car door to get out, he felt the young woman's eyes on him. He leaned against the side with the back of his body protected by his coat and pulled cigarettes and lighter out of his pocket.

He knew he was giving her the wrong idea, as wrong as she could believe at the moment. He was sure that his movement would be misunderstood, after all, there was no real reason for the man to stay with her even to talk to her, or to distract her.

Jensen gently knocked on the back window with his carbon hand holding the two objects, inviting the girl to smoke together.

Selene had a moment of uncertainty, observing what she could see of the agent from her position inside the car. She hesitated again for a little while before accepting, getting out on the same side and finding the man with a cigarette already lit between his lips surrounded by his beard. When she also leaned against the car, Adam's right arm brushed against her left shoulder covered in the fake leather jacket.

She was so small in stature compared to him.

The agent wondered if it was a wise choice to share such a vice with her. Even though she was of age, she was still too young to indulge in the ephemeral relaxation caused by nicotine.

He wouldn't have felt the effects of tobacco even after about twenty years, but Selene wasn't augmented, she didn't have an Implanted Rebreather to clean her inhaled air. Although there was no point in changing his mind after proposing to share a cigarette, Jensen promised himself that he would avoid smoking in front of the girl in the future.

 _Crazy_ , worrying about setting a bad example for that _little girl_. She certainly didn't need the ex-SWAT to give in to questionable activities, legal or otherwise.

Adam handed her the little paper tube filled with tobacco; Selene's hand trembled imperceptibly as she took it between her index and middle fingers, bringing it to her lips to inhale a few mouthfuls, and then returning it as she breathed out the smoke.

They repeated their movements in silence for another long minute, a slow and pondered exchange in which both seemed to linger in that common ritual. They were more interested in not accidentally touching each other's fingers as if they feared that even a simple touch would destroy that faint stillness.

Actually, Jensen believed that she didn't want to be touched again after what she had faced, while Selene was absolutely sure that the man was _disgusted_ by the fight and how the girl had fought — by what she had done to Helga and her men afterward.

They were both wrong.

Selene's hand trembled with a strong and uncontrollable spasm, dropping the cigarette on the floor.

Adam barely had time to look at her face, seeing the contracted expression in an uncertain grimace, before seeing her take the same hand to her mouth and move away from him with fast steps, slightly bent forward.

The young woman was seized with sudden nausea that poured a stream of bile into her esophagus, forcing her to refrain from vomiting to get enough distance. She freed her mouth while bent over her legs, holding her hair with one hand and trying to ease the slight pain in her abdomen with the other.

When she heard the steps of the man next to her, she moved her arm from her belly to warn him not to reach her.

«No, you don't have to...», she said, breathlessly panting, another gag that broke her air.

Adam didn't listen to her, standing by her side.

Initially, he picked up her hair with both carbon hands, the sensors recorded a vague warmth and a natural softness that he couldn't fully appreciate, even though it was absurdly easy for him to detect a faint trace of cinnamon. He made sure to hold the purple-dyed hair between the fingers of one hand with extreme care, trying not to pull a few locks because of the artificial joints, and placed the other palm free on the female forehead, perceiving, in that case, a more direct human warmth — impossible to deepen completely but with a vague feeling of sweat there.

Selene found support with the hand she had moved to stop the agent, resting it on the arm covered by the coat, distractedly feeling the firmer texture of the mechanical limb while perceiving a pleasant freshness in contact with the congested skin of the face.

The nausea subsided without making her vomit again. The second gag, like the third and fourth, brought nothing to her mouth but a little discomfort to the abdomen for the effort. When she lifted herself to breathe, she used a cellulose handkerchief pulled out of her jacket to dry her lips, folding it up shortly afterward to put it back where she got it from — pinning it in her mind that she would have to empty her pockets once home for a hygienic reason.

Adam held her hair on her back for a few more moments, freeing it with a pondered movement as he moved his other hand away from the female face embellished with tiny droplets of sweat.

«No, wait...», said the young lady, barely touching his palm in mid-air. «Can you... Please... It's nice. You're fresh.»

Jensen remained one second too still, considerably unprepared for the request to prolong that contact, but when he replied with a slight nod of consent, letting the girl bring his carbon hand back where it was _needed_ , he looked at her holding his breath, his artificial fingers on the skin of the female face, on the right side.

He didn’t know at what moment he retracted the shields to observe her without the dermal barrier. He had given the command via HUD but was unable to determine when it happened.

Selene grazed the back of his carbon hand with uncertainty before completely covering his robotic end with her fingertips. She breathed deep for a few more moments, staring at the man in the _alien_ eyes. A smile of surprise escaped her from that sudden sight.

«I'm sorry», she murmured, staring at him. «I didn't want you to see...»

Jensen understood that by those words she was referring not only to her recent physical reaction but mainly to what he had seen at Most. Selene seemed much more upset by the possibility that the man had witnessed the fight and how the situation had been handled, distraught, after that.

Was her concern well-founded? Could Adam have been _genuinely_ shocked by what he'd seen, what he'd understood?

As much as part of himself struggled to make sense of what Selene seemed to represent, and as much as he struggled to rationally explain how a twenty-two-year-old girl had been able to fight like that without the help of any augmentations, Jensen was in no way intimidated by it.

It couldn’t have been even if he had wanted to, not even in light of the non-physical abilities manifested by the young lady. Not when she merely _wished_ to find relief and comfort through contact with his carbon palm. No _monster_ would ever seek such a thing.

The ex-SWAT shook his head, his hand still pressed against the young woman's right cheek in that firm caress. «I should have intervened.»

Selene breathed deeply a couple more times, staring at him. «No, they would have shot us. I asked you to protect Artair, to think only of him, and you did.»

Adam denied it again, much more forcefully than necessary. There was no point in discussing _ifs_ and _buts_ , not with her, at least.

Selene was undoubtedly tired, perhaps worried about her emotional reaction: threatening Hartmann had been a risky decision, which could have drastically worsened the safety of the two relatives.

«I shouldn't have let you face those men and that bot alone», he added anyway.

She smiled at him again, as if she found the words of the agent pleasantly reassuring. She took a step away after a last long sigh a little more relaxed, taking a look at the nearby car.

«I need to sit down», she simply said.

They returned to the car almost moving together, but the girl leaped over the still warm bonnet, clutching herself in her jacket while slightly squeezed her head between her shoulders. Jensen stopped a few steps away, standing in front of her. He watched her reach out one hand slowly in his direction, staring at him as if she were waiting.

It was he who moved his arm a little away from his side, letting her fill that short distance between them. When the girl gently touched his right wrist, slipping her fingers barely under the wool of his coat, he realized that Selene was asking him again to resume where they had left off a few seconds earlier. She still wanted his carbon fingers on her face — on the side of the seahorse tattoo.

Adam hesitated again, astounded by that implied _revelation_ , and by how suddenly all the tactile sensors in that part of his artificial arm seemed to be ignited with absurd _vitality_.

The pressure of Selene's fingertips on his wrist was muffled, incomplete, if he hadn't looked at that part of his arm, he would have felt very little of that touch. But watching her gently take his hand to rest it on her face had the power to give him back access to memories far away in time, and to feel contrasting sensations with them.

On one side there was the certainty that everything had been reduced to simple nuances, he could recognize body heat, the texture of the skin, but he couldn’t identify so much else. Yet being able to perform that action, even if guided by her, gave him back something he hadn't experienced for years.

«I didn't get tired because of the fight with that bot», Selene said, looking into his artificial eyes that seemed to shine despite the dim light in that area of the parking lot. «Even though my shoulder hurt for several minutes, it was what I did next that really weakened me.»

Jensen remained silent for a moment, all his attention magnetized on the slight thickening he could feel beyond the seahorse, probing the underlying scar with an imperceptible thumb movement.

«When you...», he began to ask her, almost forced to swallow the slight lump in his throat. «When did you _blocked_ the bodyguards and threaten Helga?»

Selene nodded, weakly taking Adam's hand in hers to bring it back between them, just above her knees.

She found herself studying the artificial end for interminable seconds, provoking in man the devastating sensation that he should retract his arm. The devastating certainty that the more she could observe the artificial palm, the more quickly he would detect horror and disgust on her face at the aberration Jensen represented.

The young lady looked up into the eyes of the man, scrutinizing him. «Wow...»

The ex-SWAT still recognized the pang that pervaded his chest; it was not caused by revulsion at that contact, although a part of himself didn’t feel suitable to feel the sensations he was feeling.

Something inside him yearned for the continuation of that heat, he wished he could touch the girl's palms and be touched by her. It was something too _wrong_. He shouldn't have let her get that _close_ to him.

Selene's heart was a regular and sure thud, and her calm and silent breath calmed him. Her blue eyes showed no signs of disgust or fear, just remote tiredness as if she was slightly dazed, but what Jensen could understand even without the help of the social enhancer was that she was absolutely at peace to touch the artificial hand.

When the young woman raised one arm in an uncertain motion, gently holding the agent's palm between her other fingers, Adam didn’t immediately understand what she wanted to do. He watched her as the female hand rose to the right height, _forcing_ him to move just one step away, much more incredulously.

Selene wanted to touch his cheek. Two of her fingers touched him just above the beard, on the obvious signs that deformed the line of that hairs, while their eyes stared surprised and calm at the same time.

She exhaled, and the man was suddenly aware that she had held her breath. He felt her fingertips hesitating close to his face and could do no more than tilt his head slightly to fill that short distance again, so that she could see that imperceptible movement and understand that she could go on.

Selene pressed her hand completely against the cheek of Adam, feeling the short, thick hairs on her palm, and, motionless, feeling the texture of his skin and beard. An incredulous smile escaped her, a slight, subdued laugh that broke her breath as if she were caressing who knows what an indomitable and wild beast, as if she had been given the gift of being able to come so close, an unexpected but strangely desired _prize_.

Adam couldn’t understand: the voice of reason shouted to him to immediately break that contact but it had been too, _too_ long since he felt the warmth of a human palm against his face, moved with that unexpected _tenderness_.

«You're incredible», she made, the surprised expression of someone who had just found some peace after the storm.

Jensen half-closed his eyes for a moment, letting the girl's kindness and the warmth of her hand flow against his cheek. When he resumed staring at Selene, being turned towards the fast-food restaurant was definitely helpful, because he noticed only then Artair getting out of the gas station and heading back towards the car with a couple of paper bags in his arms.

He took several steps away, _abandoning_ the young woman on the hood of the car and reactivating the shields on his _alien_ gaze.

The girl was sad for a moment but as soon as she heard McTavish's footsteps a few feet away from them, she quickly turned to locate the relative who was now quite close enough. She gave the agent a quick smile of understanding just before returning with her feet on the ground.

They ate in the car, resuming their seats and commenting distractedly on the quality of the food, although it was more a quick, verbal exchange between the two Scots, while Adam lingered in a silence that risked to close his stomach.

It was easy to hide his thoughts when he was so used to taking refuge in absolute control of his expression, but it was impossible to deny to himself how deeply affected he was by that sudden _closeness_ that it had found a way to blossom, despite the many obvious differences between the girl and the ex-SWAT.

They arrived in Prague an hour later, around midnight, while the autumn weather was even harsher and the silence of the night was just broken by the mumbling of the car's engine. Artair had set himself the aim of leaving Jensen in the Překážka district out of simple courtesy, yet another kindness to which the man was no longer accustomed.

The agent got out of the car after a nod to the hack, while Selene went out on the same side to settle in the front seat.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment beside the vehicle, her with a small smile on her lips as he pushed back the impulse to touch her again into the recesses of his soul, his arms deliberately tightened at the sides, along with his coat.

Why would he ever touch her again? Why would he do something like that?

«Good night, Adam», said the girl in a quiet voice, blue eyes that seemed to shine with intimate enthusiasm in the light of the surrounding street lamps.

«You too, Selene.»

Calling her by her name seemed to take on even more wrong connotations as if he had no right to linger on it with his mouth and tongue. With his mind.

Adam watched the vehicle move away in the direction of the nearest bridge to cross the river, following it with his eyes until he saw the tail lights disappearing beyond a bend not far away.

Once in his apartment, Jensen quickly moved into the kitchen area without even taking off his coat, opening the bottle of Rusterini&Moorks he had received from Artair and pouring a copious quantity of it into the first glass that came under his hand. He drank it all at once and tried to push the hot lump he felt in his throat with the amber liquid.

What had happened, exactly? _How_ had it happened?

A second glass of whiskey would have given him no answer but, at least in part, it would have extinguished the urge to find any sense of what he had wanted and what he had felt.

He would have finished the bottle of alcohol in an attempt not to go to sleep with his mind crowded with those thoughts — not with Selene's face caressed by his mechanical palm lingering in his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, unavoidable family business over the weekend. I hope there aren't too many translation errors, let me know anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events at Helga Hartmann's villa, Adam and Selene find some time to get to know each other better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A light and in-depth chapter.  
> Forgive my delay, however, various personal duties have kept me away from writing. It's also because of the hot weather, I hate the Italian summer so much. I want to live in a place where it's always cold.

Adam had spent the two days following that Sunday staying in contact with Artair just to share the little information that the hacker and the agent could exchange through the infolink.

The Belltower facility that had been sold to the Russian government was not actually listed as Soviet property. What was highlighted in the documents recovered from Helga Hartmann suggested that it was a cover-up sale for something different.

It was just after 7:10 p.m. on Tuesday when McTavish contacted the ex-SWAT for some advice.

Jensen had gone to TF29 that day in the early afternoon to make the most of the firing range; even though he was still on vacation, no one could forbid him from spending his free time there — and MacReady wouldn't have bothered him because the Adam had completed three-quarters of the backlog.

BlueDevil's call came at a time when the ex-SWAT was at the cafeteria on the _first floor_ of the hidden office, a dozen analysts behind him, busy at the computer stations, and a few operatives in the rooms on the upper level.

« _Adam, I have the coordinates for the place we're interested in, but what I'm finding is suspicious. I would like to show you some documentation to get your opinion, but sending everything to your PC will take time for the security protocol I usually use._ »

He knew what the hacker was referring to. When he had sent him the report of Selene's mission in France and all the other information about Horus Field and the Hymeneal Plan, the exchange of data had not been particularly fast. He was aware that on that occasion BlueDevil had checked the laptop in his apartment, even from a long distance.

Chang wouldn't have been happy at all.

«I can stop by your place right now», the agent proposed.

« _I have to go to Crannóg in five minutes, but I started sending every file to Selene about half an hour ago, also not to give her the chance to accuse me of keeping her out again. I'll tell her to print it all out and give it to you wherever you like._ »

The hacker silenced for a few seconds, during which Adam finished his coffee as he looked towards the large central office space.

The last part of Artair's reply caused him some frustration: he was deeply undecided about whether or not to resume with McTavish the question of actively involving Selene in the mission.

« _It will take an hour or so for my niece's computer to process the information received. I run her terminal with the same security protocol I do. That means, based on Selene's schedule, I can't tell you if she'll deliver the documents in the evening or if she will tomorrow morning. Maybe it's better if you contact her yourself._ »

The agent furrowed an eyebrow, doubtful. «Won't she be at the pub with you?»

He took a quick look at the area near the entrance to the TF29, walking slowly towards that part of the large hall.

« _No, Sunday night she told me she needed some time alone_.» Artair let out a faint sigh. « _Sometimes it happens, she tends to do something else when she's tired_.»

Adam barely breathed in, a long look at the door beyond the metal detector. The new quartermaster watched him from his station a bit to the side, distracted for a moment by the presence of the ex-SWAT.

Seeing that uniformed agent reminded him that, after the events of London, Aria Argento had become a full-fledged field operative, the only other one to have been augmented, apart from him, in the TF29 team in Prague.

Knowing that it was MacReady who wanted her on the team had switched on Jensen the legitimate doubt that Duncan actually had a soft spot for the woman. Probably unrequited, since Aria, despite a serious and professional behavior, had tried several times in the last six months to hang with Adam at every occasion.

He greatly appreciated that Aria found him supposedly attractive — perhaps the woman's was simply kindness and courtesy and he was definitely making a blunder — but to even consider the mere idea of a possible relationship with her was the wrongest thing he could do, not only because of their position as colleagues.

He would have always had to lie to her about his real role in Interpol and, even if she accepted it, he would have risked putting her in the sights of the Illuminati. Keeping Aria at a distance had been a moral obligation, as much as he considered the woman to be extremely intelligent and with a strong personality, incredibly similar to his own.

«So, you don't know if Selene's home and she's okay?», Adam asked, returning to the conversation with Artair.

Using sub-vocal communication meant getting questioning nods from anyone, especially if he stood still in a spot in _apparent_ silence, and that was exactly what he received from the new quartermaster.

McTavish initially replied with an uncertain verse, a barely whispered exclamation for that unusual request.

« _Of course she's all right, I suppose she stayed home. Yesterday she must have rested most of the day, today she must have done something else, but she made me realize that it wasn't her intention to go to the pub._ »

The ex-SWAT remained silent for a few more moments before resuming his speech. «Didn't Selene tell you that Sunday, while you were inside the fast-food, she wasn't feeling well?»

« _What?! No!_ »

Jensen shook his head in a tense nod, advancing past the checkpoint to reach the elevator that would bring him back to the surface. He immediately felt the mechanisms activate as soon as he used the card on the card reader.

« _Fuck, she didn't say anything to me so I wouldn't worry. What exactly happened?_ »

«She vomited for a couple of minutes, and then explained to me that her illness was caused by the effort of... What she did after destroying that bot», he replied promptly, overcoming at that moment the blue laser grid set up along the concrete and steel compartment.

Artair sighed again, exasperated. « _Shit, I knew she was tired, but I didn't know she'd suffered so much. Look, thanks for telling me. I'll go see her now._ »

«I'm on my way to her place», said the agent as he waved goodbye Marcie Sedlák with a nod of his head; the woman gave him a quick smile and returned to her front desk, a cup of cold coffee by the side of the work computer.

BlueDevil remained silent for a moment, long enough to make Jensen fully aware of how unjustified his intent was.

« _Why?_ », the hacker asked, the tone of voice clearly perplexed.

«Because if your niece finds out that I ratted her out, I'm pretty sure I could _hypothetically_ regret it in the future», the ex-SWAT said, simulating an amused tone.

He had to pretend he had no other thoughts on his mind — he had to lie to BlueDevil, it was all about lying to him, he knew it.

«Furthermore», he added in the hope of _sounding_ convincing, «if it will not be a problem for her, I will wait at her place for the files you sent. I'm not in my apartment, that's why I'm offering to go there.»

The hack seemed to think about that answer, finding it probably reasonable. « _Are you sure you don't want to wait for her to bring the documents?_ »

«Let's optimize the timing», Adam proposed. «As soon as the files are ready, I will be able to view them immediately from her computer», he replied, lighting a cigarette to smoke on the short trip.

It wasn't possible lying like that to Artair. He should have told him he just wanted to make sure Selene was okay.

Why say anything else? Why keep silent about something seemingly normal? How admitting he was a little worried about that _little girl_ could be considered something wrong?

The hacker remained silent for a moment, giggling a little later. « _I appreciate your helpfulness, Jensen. If you want, when you leave Selene's house, come by the pub.»_

An imprudent concession from McTavish. Not the invitation to go at Crannóg, but what would have anticipated it.

He should have let Artair take care of the girl. It was far more reasonable for the relative to go to her.

During those two days, Adam had tried to take what had happened that Sunday night with Selene and force it out of his mind. He had returned to Task Force 29's offices earlier than necessary just for that reason.

«I thank you», replied the ex-SWAT, realizing that he was silent for a few seconds too long, «but it is likely that, because of the nearness of the Pilgrim Station, I will then go straight to Překážka.»

BlueDevil initially responded with a resounding verse of assent, then adding the rest in words. « _All right. Thanks again, Adam._ »

«You're welcome.»

He closed the sub-vocal communication while he smoked with a certain vehemence, muttering between himself another "you're welcome" with a clearly grumpy tone. It was obvious that he was legitimately _angry_ about his own decision.

When Jensen arrived at the opening leading to the inner courtyard of the Libuše apartment building, he remembered that he had not asked about Selene's mobile number.

He hesitated for a moment, uncertain whether to go up the stairs in any case: with a very quick glance through the smart vision, he became aware of the presence of a human form on the second floor, in the flat designated for number eighty-six.

He deactivated the graft as soon as he had the luminous confirmation, just so as not to further invade the privacy of the girl, he threw the still-lit cigarette butt on the ground, stepping on it with a shoe, and resumed the path to stop in front of the wooden door.

He was almost knocking when he heard a series of rather loud noises coming from inside, like chairs being moved, followed by a terrible thud and a brief female scream on which the man wasted no time wondering.

The maglock at the side, on the external wall, was active and set to "open", a sign that the entrance was not closed.

The worst hypothesis that appeared in his mind examined only one scenario: Helga Hartmann's men had reached the young woman in her apartment. It was a more than plausible possibility, especially after what she had done after the fight in Most.

The agent merely acted on impulse.

When he opened the door of momentum, moving two steps inwards, he did not expect to see the scene that presented itself before his eyes covered with the shields.

There was a short-haired white dog, a Bull Terrier to be precise, who wagged his tail cheerfully as he tugged a shower towel between his jaws, next to a chair knocked down on the floor, near the dining table.

And there was Selene, her hair gathered on her head in a loose bun, her face initially cheerful, even considerably amused, as she held the other end of the towel in her hands, not really intent on covering herself.

Her naked body was visible to the eyes of the agent for just a couple of seconds, the time necessary to see practically _everything_.

Her bust was slightly bent forward, barely letting dangling the firm, soft breasts that trembled with that sudden movement, a D bra size definitely full that the man had already noticed during the only two times he had been at Crannóg — because those little dresses fit her like gloves, leaving little to the imagination.

Her belly was flat, with a hint of musculature more interesting than expected, and went down on the groin covered by a small and reduced triangle of dark curls, thanks to the work of some good beautician and a quite freshly waxed.

Tattoos took a back seat, even though her arms and legs were covered with them as if she were wearing clothes anyway. A good 70-75% of her epidermis was covered by drawings, doodles and writings, but that characteristic did not really matter, like those funny, fuchsia fabric slippers the young girl was wearing on her feet.

Selene's expression changed with the same delay with which the ex-SWAT reacted immediately after.

«Fuck, Adam!», she exclaimed, bringing her arms to her chest and turning towards the bedroom, closing the door behind her with a noisy thud.

At the same time that she had taken refuge in her room, the man had rushed to the landing, pulling the door behind him and remaining motionless for a few moments.

He brought a hand to his face for a gesture that included disbelief, a hint of embarrassment, again disbelief, and finally that subtle and inopportune curiosity that could trigger at the sight of a naked body considered subjectively pleasing.

Because, _fuck_ , Selene had a very young body, but damn feminine and soft in the right places. And he hadn't looked at a woman completely naked even by accident in over a couple of years.

The man lit another cigarette, leaning against the railing without finding a comfortable position, like if he were constantly stung by a swarm of insects.

What the hell was he doing there? He just had to leave.

When Selene came out of her room, dressed in sweatpants and a heavy, slightly worn-out sweater, her long hair loose on her shoulders, she recovered the shower towel left on the floor by the dog lazily wagging his tail in front of the entrance.

She took the towel to the bathroom, placed it in the dirty linen basket, returned to the main room, first lifting the fallen chair and then, with a sigh, approached the door leading out of the apartment.

With a gesture she ordered Diuk, the Bull Terrier next to her, to stay in his place. When she opened the door, she found Adam leaning against the stone railing, arms to his chest, although one was slightly raised to hold a cigarette in a nervous nod.

The agent turned to look at her after a moment of hesitation, his eyes covered by the shields that scrutinized her face. The girl remained motionless for a moment, uncertain what to do, but in the end, she couldn't hold back, bursting out laughing out loud at what had happened.

«We have to stop seeing each other all the time after I finish showering», she commented, deeply amused. «At least let's do it once apiece...»

Jensen found that reaction to be acceptable, although he had expected it to be less spontaneous and decidedly tenser. He, in her shoes, would not have taken it so well. Not so well at all. Not at all.

Selene leaned against the jamb with her hip, hands close to her belly. «Do you want to come in?»

Moving slightly away from the opening, the girl gave the Bull Terrier enough space to let him advance curiously towards the man, even though he wasn't allowed to completely cross the line that marked the beginning of the flat.

The agent bowed his face to the animal, then turned to the young woman. «I didn't know you had a dog.»

«He's not mine», she answered. «Every now and then some neighbors, not just from the apartment complex, leave me their _puppy_ for two or three days at most. It's as good a way as any to earn something.»

She paused to pick up the Bull Terrier, who must have weighed about fifty-five pounds anyway, and squeezed him on her chest with playfulness to introduce him to the ex-SWAT.

«By the way, this is Diuk, and you caught us playing with my shower towel.»

The agent sighed, bowing his face. He could not help but deny imperceptibly, maintaining the same position on the landing but moving one carbon hand in a nod of apology.

«I'm sorry, Selene, I shouldn't have come in like that. It's just that I heard that noise, I heard you screaming, and... I don't know, I was afraid something bad was happening. I thought about Helga Hartmann's men...»

The girl smiled again, taking one step towards him. «Adam, don't worry. Nothing serious happened. I just got a little scared when I heard the door open, and I admit that I didn't recognize you at first, because I was more worried about covering myself.»

Diuk leaned forward from the girl's arms to sniff in the direction of Jensen, his tail beginning to wag lazily in response. The man took a long look at the animal, remaining silent.

Selene raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised. «It seems absurd to ask you this, but are you intimidated by his appearance?»

Jensen made a vague gesture with his head, letting slip a quick throat verse. «No, not at all. It's just...». He paused, dropping his cigarette on the floor to put it out under his shoe. «Never mind, I shouldn't have come.»

The agent moved down the stairs, down the first two steps before being stopped by the girl, a hand of hers just resting above his elbow.

He should have felt stronger and more intense the impulse to move away, to hastily move away and maybe even make an annoying expression visible on his face, but he only turned around to look at the hacker's niece with the usual imperturbable frown, because in reality, he didn't want to reject that contact so abruptly.

«Adam, I promised you I wouldn't try to _read_ you again, so unless you're gonna tell me what's going on, I can't know what you came here for.»

The little woman's voice was calm and condescending, her right arm holding the dog against her side effortlessly.

The man looked for a moment elsewhere, a slight movement of the eyes behind the dark shields that were not visible to her: he was absolutely convinced that it was definitely a _good thing_ that Selene kept her word.

He couldn't have imagined how inconvenient it would be for her to probe his thoughts and find in there not a few details of what Jensen had improperly _taken_ several minutes earlier.

His head kept lingering over the memory of the girl's naked body.

_Twenty-two years old, Adam. Absolutely not._

Jensen shook his head, climbing the steps, forcing Selene to move back a few steps and bring the other arm around the dog.

«I only came for Artair's files», the man said.

«Oh», she replied with a nod of amazement. «Well... I'm afraid my computer is still completing the download. My uncle texted me to print them out and get them to you, but I was going to come by tomorrow morning by... Well, uhm... Wherever you wanted them delivered. I have no idea where you live or where you work.» Selene walked to the door that was still open, but she didn't turn around. «Come on in. I was gonna order a pizza. Do you want to?»

The ex-SWAT hesitated again, a vague gesture of denial to accompany his response. «I don't want to disturb you.»

She stared attentively at him, certain that it was something else entirely.

Diuk began to be a little restless in her arms, fidgeting to get down; the girl returned to the apartment to set the dog free on the floor, seeing him disappear almost instantly in the direction of the bowl filled with fresh water.

When she turned to Adam, he was still where she left him. She leaned back against the jamb again, crossing her arms to her chest with amusement.

«My goodness, was it so terrible to see me naked? Do I look so repulsive?», she asked, a little smile of mockery on her lips.

The man stiffened further, the expression wrinkled despite the dark shields on the eyes. He knew full well how much she was trying to provoke him again, but it was precisely in that circumstance that he found the comment really out of place.

There was no need to tell her that her looks weren't repulsive _at all_. She was absolutely aware of it and there was no need to deny how aware Jensen was.

To feel that he was being taken the piss just because he seemed much more embarrassed than she was by the simple idea of had seen her naked was exactly what was pushing him to end the discussion there.

«Have a nice evening, Selene», he blurted out, the tone of voice unnerved.

BlueDevil's niece burst out laughing at the exact moment the agent made to leave, grabbing his arm to hold him.

«Come on, come on. I was joking», the young lady excused herself, shaking his hand gently between both palms.

He gave her an exhaustive look, sure that the strict line of his mouth was enough to keep her from going any further. Selene giggled again, trying to hold back, biting her lips so as not to smile too openly.

«Now that you're here», she continued, «stay and keep me company. Do you have other plans for the evening?»

Adam tilted his face slightly, staring at her. «I may have...», he said, bothered.

The girl smiled again, raising an eyebrow. «Jensen, I'm not naive. If you had something else to do somewhere, you wouldn't have even shown up at my door.»

«Hey», he blurted, dramatically slipping out of her grip and pointing her with a carbon finger. «This confidence... Cut it out, _little girl_. I'm not your uncle, and I'm not even a friend you can afford to talk to like that.»

Selene barely puffed, moving further away from him with a bored movement, returning to the door but keeping it open to wait for instructions on what to do.

«Copy that, spoilsport», she commented, heedless to _offend_ him so calmly with that nickname.

The man looked up in a very exasperated nod, even though the shields didn't give the girl a chance to guess his expression. He hesitated a moment before entering, letting slip a sharp, grumpy verse as he passed the opening. He heard the door close behind him as soon as the girl was able to pull it over without hitting him with the door. When he turned around, he found Selene's fingers raised a few inches from the collar of his coat; he took a step back for that sudden closeness and carried his hands forward in a nod.

She stared at him, puzzled. «Are you going to wear your coat the whole time? It'll get hairy.»

An obvious and sensible request, but Adam still had a moment of uncertainty: under the ACRNM he wore one of the many sleeveless shirts with a slightly high collar, together with comfortable work trousers.

With a quick gesture, he still got rid of the clothing, keeping an eye on the girl's expression to notice even the slightest change in the sight of his augmented limbs.

A change slipped into a triumphant little smile, restrained and calm, but she was delighted that he had decided not to ignore her request.

«Relax, Adam. I don't bite», Selene commented, moving towards the bedroom to leave his coat there. «Unless you ask me for it...», she muttered as she disappeared through the door.

_Twenty-two fucking years old, Adam. No fucking way!_

What had happened to what he had thought days before about "certain reflections had to remain relegated to dark corners and deprived of the human soul"?

He simply had to ignore the bland attempts to flirt with him by a _little girl_ who was a bit too easygoing.

It would not even be the first time that very young women let such comments slip to tease him a little. Before the augmentations, he also had similar situations when he was in SWAT, with recruits fresh out of the academy or other young women attracted by the charm of the uniform — and even then, he was always indifferent, especially when he was in a serious relationship.

Once again in the living room, Selene giggled amusedly at the reprimanding expression of the man, moving in front of the laptop on the shelf not far from the bedroom door.

«So? Pizza?», she seriously suggested.

«What about the files sent by your uncle?», the man asked instead, approaching to look at the screen.

The hacker's niece selected with the cursor a window hidden in the background, a bar filled just over half that continued to advance. «In an hour or so, even less, they'll be ready.»

She took one look at the man, the look that lingered on the nearest carbon arm, finding it extremely particular and detailed.

Few times she had the opportunity to observe someone's mechanical end so easily, but on all past occasions, she had never found such emulative care, let alone such a rich design. It was an extremely professional and valuable work, something you didn't see every day.

Selene wasn't very familiar with the topic, but she recognized an unusual perfection when she saw it.

When she noticed that the agent was probably watching her for a change in expression, she let a relaxed smile slip by.

«So?», she resumed. «A big pizza for two? Or a big one apiece?»

Adam remained silent for a second, waiting.

For one moment he considered not really staying there, he _couldn't_ materially think of staying with the girl to keep her company. And to seek company in turn.

He made sure she was all right — she was more than all right, that _little girl_. He could easily tell her to print the files once the download was complete and have her hand them over the next morning.

It would have been the most obvious and wise choice, because, otherwise, Selene would have tried in every way to _talk_ , really talk, in the absurd attempt of the girl to _know_ him a little more.

After Sunday evening, it was like if Jensen had given her permission to keep _teasing_ him. He knew that part of himself had wanted it after the events at the villa.

Remembering how she had behaved on the short trip from Most to the fast-food restaurant was what made him stop leaving and convinced him to quickly send a message to Artair's vu-phone via HUD, just to warn him that everything was fine.

«One big pizza for both of us I think that's enough», he replied, the tone not entirely convinced. Especially because he chose to silence the hacker a _very small_ detail: he was practically staying for dinner with the girl.

Selene nodded with a smile, going back to the computer to order. «Any preferences on additional ingredients? I usually love double cheese, but it can get stubbly if you don't like it.»

Jensen shook his head, biting his lower lip weakly to avoid smiling in turn, his eyes fortunately covered by shields.

«Anything goes», he replied with a shrug of his back, though after a pause he seemed to change his mind. «Breaded chicken and dips?»

The girl giggled, selecting the ingredients from the list. «You're so American. But I won't let you choose pineapple.»

«I don't like it either», he said, a lip corner raised. He couldn't avoid that hint of a smile.

«Actually, the fruit on the pizza is not bad», she replied, finally selecting the required cheeses and confirming the order. «I was in Italy with my uncle before I came here to Prague. In Turin, to be precise. There I ate pizza with blue cheese and pears: it was something sublime. I plan to go back there as soon as I... Well... The situation calms down.»

Adam nodded briefly, observing the young woman's relaxed expression. «I think you can eat well everywhere in Italy.»

«Ever been there? Not even for work?», asked Selene, sincerely curious.

Before slightly lowering the screen of the laptop, she activated a slight musical diffusion through the speakers installed in the house, letting the initial notes of "[Crossfire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U24QI0lBT8A&t=19s)" by the singer Stephen spread through the room, finally turning towards her guest and leaning against the shelf with her buttocks.

«Never had the pleasure», admitted the man in a calm voice.

«Maybe you'll take some time off when I'll go there too. I can speak Italian quite well», the young lady proposed.

It was unusual, to say the least, for Jensen to hear such a proposal.

How long did he _know_ that _little girl_? A week? How the hell could she think of asking him to take a trip together? What was the point? Selene took it so much for granted that, as she said herself in anticipation of calmer waters, they would continue to maintain that professional relationship?

It was much more reasonable to consider the possibility that, once the task for which Artair had _contacted_ him had been completed, their paths would be completely separated. Reasonable and obligatory.

He couldn't afford to keep friends, not with the life he was leading.

Selene had bent her face a few moments later, a soft smile on her lips; Adam also found himself drawn to what she was looking at, a white movement now unfamiliar to him, close to the floor.

Diuk came wagging his tail, carrying a medium-sized rope toy, holding it in his jaws. He first smelled the ex-SWAT's shoe and then turned to the girl and shook his head in a livelier nod, a clear invitation to play.

Selene burst out laughing, bending over on her knees, but leaning against the shelf with her back. «He literally ignored you. Even he realized you're a spoilsport.»

Jensen simply responded with a dry verse, crossing his arms to his chest and then moved next to the table, taking his seat on the nearest chair shortly after turning it towards the two in the large living room.

Selene grabbed the end of the toy in one hand, effortlessly holding the pressure of the dog as he tried to pull the rope away. She had a relaxed smile, a blue look at the animal as she moved her hair behind her ear with her other hand from time to time.

«Hey, Adam», she did without looking at him.

The man waited to hear what she had to say, certain that he did not need to answer in turn to keep the young girl talking.

«I've stopped ignoring you», commented BlueDevil's niece, throwing a look at him.

«What?». The agent moved into the chair, straightening his back.

Selene waited for a moment in silence, giving him another look, her expression barely more uncertain. Or maybe she was worried.

«You don't have to ignore me», she answered. «After Sunday it seems ridiculous to me that you try to ignore my attempts to have a conversation.»

Jensen raised his head slightly, still fussing in place as if he had been crossed by a persistent tingling sensation. It was bizarre to feel so much on pins and needles with a _little girl_ who just needed to talk to someone. The social enhancer was _screaming_ it out loud.

«Trust me, Selene. If I was ignoring you, I wouldn't even be here», said the agent regardless of his tone, knowing full well that he was a little grumpy.

The girl hugged her shoulders, still playing with the dog. «I did something to annoy you, huh?»

«A number of times», said Jensen, tilting his head.

The young woman nodded in response without observing him again, her cheeks slightly flushed by a feeling of fun and subtle embarrassment.

It was at that point that Adam sighed briefly, removing the shields from his eyes. The faint sound produced by the dermal graft caught Selene's attention, turning her head towards the man.

The sight of his artificial eyes, his calm expression, made her realize that somehow the ex-SWAT was not so bored. On the contrary, he also seemed paradoxically at ease.

When she saw him get up to get closer, bending down on his legs, a mechanical arm slightly raised above Diuk to caress him on his back, a smile escaped her, extending the end of the rope to her guest.

Their fingers touched each other for a little longer than expected, in silence, while the Bull Terrier puffed and clapped noisily, accompanied by the melody of the song that was about to end.

«Thanks for staying», said the girl at one point, her face turned to Diuk anyway.

Jensen took a long look at her, knowing once again that he did not need to answer her.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Random playback of Selene's laptop let Daughter's "[Numbers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OToWE3rmcwU&t=166s)" begin very calmly, metaphorically enveloping the girl and the man with its barely pressing melody.

The young lady had slipped placidly on the floor, crossing her legs in front of her but leaning against the shelf behind her. That gesture definitively distanced Diuk from Adam, who until moments before held the rope toy in his robotic hand to entertain the animal.

The Bull Terrier moved swiftly towards her, climbing up her thighs wrapped in sweatpants and then trying to lift himself to reach her face with a couple of licks. The girl's laughter, in a harmless attempt to appease the dog from such a display of affection, had the surprising effect of making the agent smile in turn.

Jensen moved a little to the side to emulate her position, fully aware of what he was communicating with that proximity.

She turned to look at him as she let Diuk bite the fingers of a hand. «Your clothes will get dirty.»

The agent made a vague gesture of carelessness, raising his arm closer to attract the animal's attention. The dog tried to bite his carbon fingers in the same way, stopping immediately for the obvious difference in consistency, smelling them and licking a fingertip shortly afterward for a moment.

Adam carefully avoided showing for too long the feeling he had just felt. The inability to experience certain physical perceptions with his hands, except for some basic information that ignored so many nuances, made his mouth slightly crooked.

He remembered what it was like to be bitten by canine teeth: it wasn't always a pleasant feeling, Kubrick as a puppy had been extremely biting, but at that moment he would have given anything to feel the weak playful pressure of the Bull Terrier.

Diuk moved on the ex-SWAT, walking from the girl's crossed legs to reach those stretches of the man. He lifted himself on his back paws and placed the front ones on the sleeveless jersey to sniff the man's face, finally trying to lick him, but Jensen promptly avoided that contact tilting his head.

Despite his refusal to be licked in the face by an animal he knew nothing about, he took time to caress him, guiding the Bull Terrier to lie on his back directly on his carbon thighs protected by his pants.

Leaving the belly exposed was a clear message, easily understood even by those who were not familiar with dogs: Diuk felt safe and protected, ready to be caressed on his belly by Adam's carbon hands.

Selene moved slightly to one side to touch with her left hand a raised paw of the dog, barely touching the nearest end of her guest with her right arm.

«Do you like animals?», she asked, the look on Diuk again.

Adam took one gaze at her, continuing with the caresses less constantly. He knew from that moment on she would try to _talk_.

«Enough to have had a dog in the past. A Border Collie.»

The young woman nodded briefly, smiling barely. «Nice breed, very smart.»

«Yeah», he said in reply, bowing his face to hide the quick shadow that passed in his _alien_ glance.

For a moment he wanted to hide behind his shields again, but he could bear, or rather, he wanted to endure some direct eye contact. Despite his artificial eyes, he was perfectly aware of how expressive his face could be if he thought about his past.

«No dogs now?», continued the girl, leaning her temple against the cabinet, leaning just to the side.

Her left shoulder, the one furthest from the sideboard, came out slightly from beyond the edge of the jersey, exposing the strap of a sports bra, the delicate line of the collarbone and some tattoos.

Jensen just took a quick look at the visible portion of skin, a quick flash in his mind that showed him what he had seen several minutes earlier. He could focus on the perfect little design of the Japanese mask in that spot of her, but instead, he found himself thinking about how many inches were missing from the breast just below.

He exhaled silently, returning to Selene's blue gaze with a nod. «I never stay home that long.»

«But those times when you return to your home, wouldn't you like to be greeted by a wagging tail?», she continued, curious.

The agent sigh, robotic hands in stark contrast to the white hair and the slightly rosy belly of the animal lying on his legs.

«As pleasant as it would be, I'm not the type to put my welfare before that of a dog, forced to leave him alone most of the day, or to leave him to someone to take care of him in my absence.»

Selene straightened her back, raising her left hand from Diuk in a quiet gesture to point herself. «Well, uh... I'm here. Being a dog walker really relaxes me. I'd offer you a discounted rate, of course.»

The man let slip an amused verse, lifting a corner of his lips in a faint smile.

«How could I refuse such an offer?», he added, giving her another quick look. «But, in the unlikely idea that I adopt a pet and turn to you in my absence», and at his subtly sarcastic tone, the young girl showed a small, falsely offended pout, «you, too, will not always be able to look after them. So who should take care of them for you?»

Selene shook her head, doubtful as to the meaning of the question. «Someone else is there, for a few days. There are also animal boarding houses.»

Adam curled his eyebrows in a relaxed nod, half-clenching his eyes, that little smile still on his lips. «Let's just say I'm not the type who would give their dog to a third person anymore.»

That answer was enough for Selene to instantly understand what else the ex-SWAT was saying, that silent truth she had not grasped before. She resumed from her position, the uncertain expression.

«Oh», she murmured in a low tone. «I'm sorry...»

«Don't worry», Adam said. «It was years ago, when... When I was augmented. The person who was holding my dog couldn't take care of him anymore and I was seriously injured. In a coma.»

Selene remained a moment banned from that answer, uncertain how to interpret those words and how to respond to them.

It didn't seem unusual to her that Adam was suddenly willing to say something about himself, even though he kept siphoning his answers and being vague. His seemed more like a habit than a real need to stay detached.

Something suggested to her that man had been forced to erect _barriers_ , he was not _born_ that way. A person could develop introverted behavior for a simple matter of character, but she was quite sure that Jensen was actually harboring a much less reserved soul than was shown.

«I'm sorry», she repeated, taking a long look at the agent and shrugging her shoulders. «You've been augmented after some... _Accident_?»

The man gave her a silent look, a calm expression but perfectly aware that he was making _audible_ even those words he was not saying. It was incredibly easy to detect the need not to answer her in that case: Jensen was allowing her to see how little he appreciated that topic.

Selene nodded briefly, holding the hand she used to caress Diuk to her face to put some strands of purple hair back behind her ear.

«Got it, Adam. I put my curiosity to rest.»

The man shook his head, doubtful. «Really? I'm surprised at this sudden lack of insistence. Classic reverse psychology doesn't work on me. Pretending to respect my not wanting to answer that question won't change my mind.»

Although he was absolutely sincere, he adopted a tone of voice much more amused than necessary, precisely because he didn't want to give the impression that he was annoyed by that hypothesis, expressed more out of irony than anything else.

Artair's niece squeezed herself in the shoulders, resting her temple against the shelf again. A slight giggle escaped her, trying to bring some lightness back between her and the man.

«Hey, as a bit of a bitch as I am, I know how hard some things are to tell. I'm not gonna force you to tell me something you don't wanna tell me, just like I keep some things from my past to myself.» She paused, tickled her cheek with one finger. «Besides, I still have the feeling that you've already told me more than you did with my uncle, for example.»

An amused smile escaped her while her cheeks flushed more than expected, the musical selection that let the melody of "[Gangsta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEsdu8BTytY)" by Kehlani spread.

Adam shook his head in an amused nod: the mere prospect of chatting with Artair about certain topics was highly unlikely. He had to admit that he was getting much more familiar with Selene, surely because it was she who was trying to set it up.

Compared to Sunday he was much sure that it was not some Machiavellian attempt to make him lower his guard for some absurd conspiracy purpose, it was just the _desire_ of a person only interested in collaborating.

He watched the young woman smile openly, her face a little brighter with an obvious redness. He began to sense her reactions and was almost certain that in that case, she was on the verge of giving him yet another innocent and cheeky comment.

«I mean, you've unbuttoned enough already», she resumed a bit too seriously. «By your standards, at least. Not by mine, surely. You can do better», she finally added, an eyebrow raised in a mischievous nod.

Jensen would have laughed openly.

He sensed the forced absence of such human contact, especially when someone, out of the blue, seemed to set out to make him feel absolutely _normal_. It was too easy to recognize what Selene was trying to do.

In a different life, he would have given her time to get to know him, no matter how different they were in turn. In a different life, a person like Selene could have been a friend, even though they were not exactly of the same age. In a normal existence, having friends of different kinds was the simplest and most natural thing one person could experience.

Adam let out a long sigh, only slightly resigned and amused at the same time. In his life, at that moment he had to nip certain attitudes in the bud.

«Listen, these jokes of yours are really inappropriate...»

«I'm aware of that», she interrupted him. «But I won't stop just because you have a nun's sense of decency. That's why it's funny.»

The man's expression was remarkably detailed — eyebrows raised in an uncontrolled motion, eyes subtly exasperated and lips contracted in an incredulous grimace.

«I haven't the decency...», he began to say.

He stopped, aware that he was yielding to her game again and conscious that he was surrendering rather voluntarily; despite that subtle feeling of uncertainty in his stomach, the same feeling he felt when he had practically _lied_ to Artair several minutes earlier, and no matter how hard he had to admit it, finding himself involved in that light chatting relaxed him terribly.

«What exactly are you going to do? What kind of reaction are you hoping to get from me with such innuendoes?»

Selene lifted her face slightly in a sly gesture, brushing the man's shoulder with her hair and ignoring any common sense to run a finger over the nearest carbon forearm.

«Do you really want me to show my cards now? Isn't it more fun to reveal them little by little?», she answered.

Adam gave her an attentive expression, although he struggled to control the angle of his mouth that wanted to lift in a flattered nod. The fact that she was _hitting_ so brazenly on him left him rather stunned, but he couldn't really deny that he was also subtly pleased by those clumsily blatant attempts.

«Don't play with me, little girl. I won't tell you a second time.»

«Little girl?», she repeated, sliding all her fingers in an imprecise movement to the mechanical wrist, probing the expression of the agent. «So, it's an age problem?»

She waited a moment in silence before continuing, sure that Adam would not give her an answer to that question.

Jensen only gave her a serious look, a faint grimace of lips that made it easier for him not to smile at her. Selene's age was _obviously_ a problem, especially after seeing her naked. If he still thought about it, he felt he was doing her some terrible wrong.

«What do you feel if I touch your hand?», asked the young lady as she gently twisted the carbon limb upwards so that she slid her fingers on the robotic palm.

Selene was able to distinguish the different types of consistency between the artificial tissues, from the silicone pads on the inside of the hand to the more mechanical and hard areas on the back, finding on the artificial fingertips an indefinite number of very small depressions. Also, the end of the agent was slightly cool: she could see how his limbs did not maintain body temperature to ensure a more familiar and emulative feeling, yet it was not at all disturbing or unusual.

It was bizarre for the girl to feel again the same sensation of two days earlier, in that parking lot of that fast-food restaurant. The weight she had felt in the mouth of her stomach was felt again, not because of some form of anxiety or disgust, but because she knew when something inside her was boiling with anticipation and euphoria.

Adam's gaze seemed to darken, the golden circles in his _alien_ irises turned imperceptibly in response to what the agent was _reading_ through the CASIE: compared to the contact that took place on Sunday evening, Selene's heartbeat accelerated very little, a slight change in her blood circulation that forced her cheeks back.

She wasn't scared of him but she wasn't fastidiously annoying either, she left it up to the man to decide whether or not to continue.

Jensen closed his hand weakly, crossing their fingers, the other palm on the side of the dog, who seemed to have dozed off in that very human position, above the legs of the agent.

Diuk was a light weight who forbade him to do anything else, because in his head there were all those unexpressed thoughts that he had kept silent, hindered and destroyed for a long time, and that he wanted to continue to ignore because of the danger with which the young girl approached him _metaphorically_.

The ex-SWAT bowed his head to the animal, although he returned to stare back at his carbon fingers between those of Artair's niece.

He hadn't hold someone's hand like that since he'd been augmented. There had been professional handshakes at TF29 with those who had first shown no reluctance to touch him — touch an aug — but seeing and _feeling_ his palm adapt to the girl's gentle and secure grip literally tied a knot in the mouth of his stomach.

He sensed the stable pressure of the hand on the sensors, the safe weight of Selene's wrist against his, the warmth of her skin. He barely felt the smoothest softness in the spot just below the phalanges and suddenly wanted to emulate what she had done while they were alone in the parking lot of that fast-food restaurant.

He wanted to raise the young woman's hand to the right height and study it, study the scar on her back of the hand covered by a tattoo of the now _overused_ symbol of Yin and Yang. He wanted to observe the lines on the palm, probe with the sensors the small fleshy mountain under the thumb, find out if there were all those micro-imperfections that he would no longer have. And he wanted to conclude that bizarre form of adoration of what she was, the perfect _natural_ expression of the human body, by holding her hand to cross their fingers again.

He hadn't touched someone like that in two years.

Part of him was screaming to go away, to get up and leave. Everything else begged him to stay.

When he lifted his face on the girl, leaning with the back of his head against the shelf behind him, she did the same, leaning her temple against the worked wood, smiling barely. He looked at her, and everything about her seemed to be begging him to stay.

Selene loosened her grip on her guest's palm, but remained with her fingertips in contact with the augmented limb, sliding downward, on his forearm.

«You don't feel anything, then?», she asked again, slipping slowly from the wrist to almost the bend in the artificial elbow.

Adam had to swallow, he wouldn't have been able to speak if he hadn't tried to push into the bottom of his abdomen the knot that went up from his stomach to his tongue. He gave a long sigh, uncertain whether to answer truthfully or not, finally making a decision dictated by pure emotional impulse.

«Yes, I can feel it. Not like it would have been years ago when I was a _natural_.» He silenced for a moment, still swallowing. «I don't feel the light chills that normally would have caused the short nails of your fingers, I barely feel the difference in the natural thickening of your fingertips, and I barely feel the smoothest softness in the center of your palm, but I feel more the curious pressure of your movements and the heat source radiating into the sensors. I can feel your grip, but many of the nuances have been lost, or are greatly reduced. I can calibrate them, to become familiar with something I want to let the tactile sensors remember, but most of the time I try to avoid it.»

_Because it's frustrating to touch something with these hands and start to appreciate the texture only by executing a command on my grafts. Because I feel like I've lost the ability to really feel everything._

The girl listened attentively to those words, without stopping for a single instant to look the man in the eye. She felt a tender curiosity for the hexagonal symbol imprinted on the upper left side of his forehead, the _Tech1_ inscription surrounded by cylindrical straw-yellow designs and those two slightly diagonal lines that seemed to arise directly from the dark hairline.

She also identified the remains of a vertical scar that broke the fullness of his left eyebrow and ended imperceptibly on his cheekbone just below. She would have liked to touch the man on that mark, from top to bottom, just to know if it was similar to what she was wearing on her body, but she preferred to avoid it.

She wasn't sure if she had permission to do it.

«And when you touched me?», continued the young lady. «Aren't the sensors on your fingertips more sensitive?»

As if to give more emphasis to that request, she put her fingers back on the mechanical palm, touching feebly the carbon ones of the agent.

Jensen looked at her for a moment — everything about her begged him to stay.

He lifted the other arm from the Bull Terrier's body to a few inches from the girl's face, on the left side of her face. He hesitated for a very long moment, seeing in her blue eyes a symbolic nod of consent to continue. He ran his finger over the tattoo of the seahorse, finding the slight difference between the normal skin and the hidden scar.

«Yes, they're more sensitive because they _have to_ be», the ex-SWAT muttered.

It was Selene who swallowed, aware for the first time of how much Adam's augmented eyes could see details she thought were hidden.

«You see them», murmured the young woman, the laptop that let "[Blinding](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da6bBKLPEGg)" by Florence and The Machine spread through the air.

The man lowered his hand on her left shoulder, left uncovered by the shirt, a quick contemplation of her rosy skin decorated with tattoos before lifting the fabric slightly slipped on her arm, putting it back in place. He was about to move his fingers away, but found himself touching the dragonfly-shaped tattoo on her neck, under her left ear, which also showed the slight difference in the epidermis caused by a slightly more calloused layer of flesh.

«Are you surprised that I can see your scars?», Adam asked, probing his host's expression.

When he found a slight sense of uneasiness in her, he already knew what the answer was, even though BlueDevil's niece visibly denied it with her head. He observed her react to that request with a blatant lie and was intimately surprised.

It was the first time she tried to lie to him openly.

«Why are you lying to me now?», he asked her with a questioning expression.

Selene squeezed into her shoulders. «I know you can feel them by touch, even if there are some less evident, but I started to cover them when I turned eighteen: I'm no longer used to the idea that someone can see them, despite the tattoos.»

Jensen slightly collected himself, surprised by what the girl was saying in a veiled way. «Are you worried they're bothering me?»

He let a bitter laugh slip by, touching with his robotic hand the back of the young woman's, the rather thick scar covered by the design of the Yin and Yang that slipped on the artificial sensors.

«Selene, I can't be impressed that easily. Not after what's been done to my body.»

The young lady stared him in the face, seeing in his _alien_ gaze a confirmation to those words, but even though Adam was assuring her that he was not disturbed by the massive presence of marks on her skin, she eventually decided to move away from him a little.

The sordid feeling of vulnerability that had accompanied her throughout her childhood and much of her adolescence lapped at her thoughts again, making her a little cautious.

Jensen immediately perceived the detachment rising like a transparent patina between them, a reaction that was finally predictable in the chaotic marasmus that was Selene's personality. However, he left her free to hide beyond that symbolic space, uncertain whether or not she would answer his next question.

«So... They all cover scars?», he asked her.

Selene nodded quickly, returning with her back resting on the shelf, her legs slightly tight to her chest in a vaguely fetal pose.

Adam could recognize in her distant look the same emotions he had felt long before, when he had awakened augmented — when he realized that his world had been _destroyed_. He was far more disturbed by the simple parallelism that such a young girl had that expression.

«Except for the tattoo I have here, just above my left breast», Selene added, distractedly raising one hand to touch herself on that spot on her chest. She paused, her gaze turned to Diuk, still lying on his back above the legs of the man. «These are my parents' names, written in Gaelic.»

She turned to look at the agent, blue eyes that sought for a moment the golden-green ones, then bowed her face in a sad smile, without any need to go any further on the meaning of that tattoo.

Jensen realized that somehow Selene reminded him of Nina Sullivan, the young girl saved along with other prisoners and Dr. Tiffany Kavanagh during his _visit_ to Rifleman Bank Station.

He felt that feeling again, the absurd certainty that she too was begging him to stay. It was not unusual to find that the girl communicated much more with the body than with words, just as he did.

Where were her friends? Beyond Artair, where were those people she was _supposed_ to consider friends? Where were those people to spend an evening with, to talk to, to vent to, to tell her dreams and fears?

That Selene was as alone as Adam was almost something obvious, even though the man kept telling himself that a _little girl_ like her shouldn't end up in that sort of self-destructive limbo at all.

He watched her keep her head bent over Diuk, barely detecting the line of the female lips curving in a sad nod, but kept silently _shouting_ at him not to go away.

When he was augmented, he would have wanted someone to be able _to read between the lines_ exactly as he was doing at that moment with his host. Then, he had longed for it as a desperate man, and precisely because of that obvious and invigorating weakness he had entrenched himself in the purest devastation of his being, choosing to erase almost entirely what he had been in favor of what he had been transformed into.

With Selene, perhaps he was still in time to _give in_ to what he had denied himself. He could have redeemed himself by listening to his deepest desire to _really_ do the only right thing. Perhaps the wisest choice was to talk to McTavish again to try to keep his niece from infiltrating the military complex in Russia, but there was no doubt that the right choice was to help the girl face that _mission_ without leaving her alone.

He continued to be legitimately concerned about the prospect that _everything_ might go drastically to _shit_ , but ignoring Selene's need to carry on her battle was the lowest and most abject way he could adopt to betray the symbolic trust she wanted to place in him. Had he done so, he would have lost the chance to cooperate with her forever.

Jensen jerked slightly at the persistent ringing of the doorbell, along with Diuk who puffed some annoyed bass whining directly on his legs. The Bull Terrier moved lazily at first, allowing the girl to be much faster to reach the door.

Adam lifted himself once he could, moving a few steps, glancing at his clothes to find a pair of white hairs on them; with a few quick movements of his hands, he got rid of them almost completely, while the young woman picked up the pizza to leave the box on the dining table, closing the front door with a hit of her hip.

«Have you paid it yet?», did Jensen, bored. «This is already the second time you or your uncle have offered me something. Not counting the whiskey at Crannóg.»

Selene smiled in response, moving in the direction of the bathroom, passing the kitchen furniture.

«I paid for it when I ordered it, Adam. Now I just left the delivery guy a tip.» She nodded to him to invite him to follow her. «If you want to wash your hands, this way. The other door leads to the utility room.»

Once that purely hygienic ritual was over, the man took a few moments to look at the toilet. An apartment with separates shower cubicle and bathtub was not easy to find in Prague. Although he wasn't really the bathing type, sometimes the desire to soak in boiling water and soap foam emerged in his thoughts, especially after long days of work.

«Is dog-sitting so lucrative that you can afford this house?», he asked sincerely curious.

The girl wiped her fingers on a towel, followed by the man shortly thereafter.

«No, but I supplement my salary a little bit by giving guitar lessons to kids and teenagers. I actually pay the rent through live performances at the pub, although I let my uncle decide how much to pay me. Řehoř Simek, the man I play with, has a family to support, an eleven-year-old daughter and a wife who works as a photographer. Their bills are undoubtedly higher than mine, so I prefer not to set a possible fee that may not always be met. In fact, I'm much more used to putting as much money aside as possible. I was brought up with a predisposition to adapt, not relax.»

She squeezed her shoulders, noticing the gentle gaze of the man, accompanied by a small smile of understanding that gave her an obvious reflection. If Jensen's final thought was to feel a kind of tenderness or compassion for her story, Selene was not at all enthusiastic about it.

«Anyway», continued the young woman, waving a hand to try to drive away that implicit sense of embarrassment, «the rent in this apartment building has been lowered because of some events that happened in other flats. From what I heard, one tenant was involved in the bombing of the Růžička Station and another was investigated for the murder of his wife. Or his ex-wife. Also, the proximity of the Red Light district makes this apartment complex quite _animated_. It often happens that some drunkard sneaks into the area here. It happened to me several times, returning from a few nights at my uncle's pub, to get harassment, but now I've gotten used to it. Also because, materially, I can't beat up some poor drunk idiot who tries to grope me: I'd risk killing him, with the strength I have.»

Jensen shook his head in a slight nod of denial, not at all surprised by that last part of the girl's long answer.

He deliberately overlooked the reasons that had presumably lowered the rental costs in that apartment building, avoiding thinking more than necessary about Nomad Stanek, who had now moved to some other part of Prague, and Johnny Gunn, who had gone who knows where.

Focusing instead on the harassment complained of by the young woman brought to his mind the visit to Helga Hartmann. It was a bad idea, as he felt the overwhelming urge to return to Most to make sure that no one would ever consider harassing a twenty-two-year-old girl again.

«I understand perfectly», admitted Jensen, expression contracted in a faint grimace.

He observed Selene biting her lower lip and blushing slightly, clear anticipation of a possible extremely predictable joke.

«Oh, what do you mean? Do you fully understand someone wanting to grope me? I know, I know, how to blame you», she began, waiting for a glance that made her giggle. «Or do they trying to grope you as well, too? And for the record, how can I blame the others in this case?», she jokingly asked, returning to the living room followed by the ex-SWAT.

«Groping me, no», Adam replied out of simple curiosity, just to understand how far that _little girl_ would go with those decidedly little veiled allusions. «But to ask me to put credits in my belt, yes. Or proposing to me if I ever considered making porn», he added, subtly skeptical.

«Oh... Well, uh... Probably, if it weren't that I could already guess the answer, I would ask you that too», she provoked him again, smiling as she gave him a cheerful look.

Jensen rolled his eyes, much more amused than he should be. He approached the table to open the pizza box, Diuk sat a few steps away with his tail wagging, hoping to eat something, while Selene retrieved two ceramic plates from a high cupboard, pushing herself on the tips of her toes.

When she turned to look at her guest, it was easy for her to understand why he had that expression of blatant fun on his face.

«Mother Nature could also make me four inches more and deprive me, for example, of some other physical characteristic», she grumbled, resting what she took on the lower shelf and returning near the furniture to get the cutlery.

«How tall are you?», the agent asked, approaching to see her height again.

«Five foot twelve inches, you tall-guy», the female tone of voice slightly sulky, placing the necessary on the table.

«Maybe you still need to grow up», he teased her, an eyebrow raised along with the corresponding lip angle.

«Oh, yes. Let's make fun of the short maiden», replied Selene, giving him a slight elbow against his mechanical arm.

«Maiden? You?», replied the man, the amused sneer still there.

«It's a figure of speech», added the girl, winking at him. «What do you want to drink? I've got some beer in the fridge and some flavored water.»

«Beer.»

The young lady moved next to the PC, checking the progress of the files sent by Artair and deactivating the music selection. «About ten minutes to go, just the time to eat.»

She took two Changuch Pale Ale and placed them on the table, returning to the drawer to look for the bottle opener, but stopping to hear the classic hiss produced by the loose corks: Adam had opened the two drinks with the simple help of his hands.

«To each one their own _powers_ », Jensen replied to the girl's gaze, taking a seat in the chair he had moved several minutes earlier, joking about the action he had just performed.

When they were both seated, Selene took the nearest bottle of beer and lifted it in mid-air.

«To our _powers_ , then, from which surely come great responsibilities», she said in such a serious tone as to risk making the agent burst out laughing, perfectly aware of the quote just heard, «and which make us somehow unique and special, but still human.»

The man responded to the toast by emulating the grip on the drink and taking a curious look on her for those last words, but the girl didn't add anything else; she just took a long sip of the alcohol and started eating while Diuk moved to a slightly closer spot, so he was on side of both.

They consumed the first slice in silence, their eyes only on their plate because they both seemed suddenly short of conversation topics.

They didn't. They'd soon find out how easy it would be to talk to someone again. To trust someone again. At their own expense, _yes_ , but that's what both Adam and Selene wanted so badly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene finds in Adam and Vaclav two diametrically opposed personalities, completely different from each other, but at the same time giving her some peace of mind.

Jensen wasn't really a pizza guy. Although he showed a preference for something that reminded him a little bit of Detroit, there in Prague he never had the chance to eat that kind of Italian dish.

It was precisely that thought, pondered as he ended with discreet astonishment the first particularly thick slice, that he remembered some of the words spoken minutes earlier by his host.

«How many foreign languages do you know?», he asked, curious. «You mentioned Italian...»

«Well...» Selene took time to think about it, raising her eyes slightly in the classic nod to recall something to memory. «English as a native language, of course, and I speak German well, too. My paternal great-grandparents came from Germany, they moved to England after the war; my father learned German from his mother, my grandmother, who then married a Scotsman. I simply learned the language from my father when I was a child while we were at Horus Field, even though I have very deep gaps when it comes to writing in German. I read and understand Scottish Gaelic, but I cannot speak it, except for a few verses learned by heart through my mother. She was passionate about oral fiction and period literature, she passed on to me her passion for books. As you already know, I read and understand Russian, but I can't speak it. Not yet, at least. For Italian and French, I only studied something out of necessity and developed speaking skills directly in contact with local people, but if I had to write something of my own, I would have considerable difficulties with syntax and grammar. Ah, and now I also consider myself quite good with Czech, since Artair and I moved here more than a year ago, but I must say that if I speak English, I very often find people who can understand and answer me.»

Adam watched her for a brief moment in silence, a clear nod that furrowed his forehead in amazement. «Quite remarkable.»

«All thanks to my... Uhm... Modified genes», she added in an embarrassed tone.

She felt the vivid sensation of having exposed herself in an excessive exaltation of herself; even though she had spoken the truth, without sweetening her language skills, she felt a discreet thrust of modesty.

«I told you, I learn extremely fast. My learning method has always been very advanced since I was a child. Not only mental but also physical.» She paused, shaking her head in a nod. «I started fighting when I was very young: paradoxically, I learned first to defend and attack, and then to ride a bicycle.»

The agent barely nodded, resuming eating a few bites, leaving the girl time to do the same before asking for more. «And play the guitar and sing?»

Selene blushed imperceptibly, just smiling.

It was a different blush than the one that lit her cheeks when she was on the verge of letting some possible allusive joke slip through her fingers. It was provoked by the same embarrassment that she had shown just before, like if she was not in the habit of saying so openly what more than _normal_ skills she had.

Jensen only sensed it at that moment, the certainty that Selene was much more comfortable talking about her fighting skills and not those considered probably more common for a girl of her age. But not that there were so many young people who could speak five foreign languages more or less fluently and be able to read and understand two more, including one no longer in everyday use such as Gaelic.

«The guitar is thanks to my instructor. Singing is something that I tried and discovered on my own over time, after my parents died.»

She moved her head in a weak nod, almost as if she wanted to put her head between her shoulders.

Adam identified in that movement yet another need to conceal the obvious upset Selene had felt since she had begun to answer his questions. He should have stopped her, he should have told her that it was not necessary to continue talking about her past. Yet he had the feeling that being so _apprehensive_ was something she would not appreciate.

«My mother used to sing me lullabies in Gaelic when I was scared, or tired, or both, inspired by oral tradition. I started singing to try to remember how she sang, but over time I forgot the tone of her voice, the sound of her laughter. Even my father's.»

She took a long sip of beer, her blue eyes wandering over Jensen as soon as she put the bottle down, but returned to her plate after a quick moment.

«It's strange: I remember with extreme precision how to face an enemy, the weak points of the human body, but I forgot my parents' voices.»

For Jensen it was extremely familiar to recognize that reaction: after the attack on Sarif Industries, he too had slowly begun to erase Megan Reed's tone of voice already after the third month. It was a natural coping mechanism, something to protect one's psyche and to process grief much faster. Even though he eventually found Megan alive again, he knew what Selene was referring to.

That's when they started eating the second slice of pizza apiece, staying quiet for a while.

He watched for an interminable moment the young woman, finding her absorbed with her blue eyes on the plate as she _took_ a small bite at the portion brought to her mouth. She ate with delight but was obviously distracted by other thoughts.

Jensen still wondered if it was okay to keep asking her about her past. Even though she had said she was hiding parts of her story, she seemed absurdly willing to share much more than he personally wanted.

«Your instructor...», the man began. «Why isn't he with Artair and you? I understand he helped you find your uncle.»

The girl nodded, a little smile on her lips at the idea of talking about her mentor. «Yes, you remember well. Damian Fisher helped me and my parents escape from Horus Field, but while he met with Artair to lead him to the place where we were to meet... Uhm...»

The hacker's niece stopped, the contrite expression of those who went back with thoughts to a specific point in their lives and found there _hell_. She moved on the chair like if she were sitting on hot coals, her fists clenched on the table released shortly afterward to take a long sip of beer.

The agent waited for her to look at him again before he spoke a necessary sentence. The sordid feeling of upset at seeing her slightly uncomfortable got the better of him, no matter if there was anything else to suggest that showing _concern_ was not the right answer.

«Sorry, Selene, I didn't mean to bring back bad memories», said the ex-SWAT, watching her.

«No problem. It's just that it's a pretty intense part of the story, and I don't know if it's a good idea to talk about it while we're eating», she admitted, responding to the gaze.

«You don't have to tell me.» Adam's voice was calm and reassuring, like his golden-green eyes. «You don't have to tell me any of this. We can talk about something else, or not talk at all. We can just finish dinner and wait for your uncle's files to be downloaded to your laptop.»

The girl squeezed her shoulders, tilting her head to one side and the other in a vague nod of denial. «It is not for me that I have objections. It's for you.»

Jensen bent his face to one shoulder, a small smile on his lips to reassure her. «I can't get shaken up easily, Selene. But I confirm that you don't have to continue on this topic if you don't want to...»

The girl exhaled deeply, studying her guest's expression. She looked down at her plate, picking up the beer in her hand and drinking it too quickly.

Adam spotted that unusual speed, the same speed that she had used much more clearly at Helga Hartmann's villa and more secretly at Artair's house after infiltrating the Russian embassy, when she had thrown the can in the trash and abandoned her position on her relative's sideboard.

An uncontrolled gesture rooted in emotions that were obviously too intense. He wondered how she had learned to contain herself, how long it had taken her to master every little part of herself.

It was her own _natural_ body that betrayed her. There was nothing worse for a person than to go through that torment.

«Horus Field no longer had funds to rely on», she replied shortly after a quick sigh, «and the mercenaries charged with finding me and my parents eight years ago, when we fled, were probably never paid. Also, a small number of men from that team were killed by Damian. Those who stayed, taking advantage of the moment we felt safe, they... They took us by surprise in a safe house and attacked us.»

The girl bit her lower lip, focusing her attention to the plate in front of her, the second slice of pizza left just a few bites from its worthy _conclusion_.

«They should have just taken us back, but... They shot my dad first, and then they... They killed my mother. Their intent, in the end, was to bleed me to death next to my dead parents, I think, because they just...»

Selene took a moment to take a close look at her guest, swallowing visibly just before continuing.

«They inflicted a deep stab wound in my belly to let me die alone. My body resisted and I survived, even though I still needed Damian and Artair's care to make a full recovery, but at that time I didn't have... I wasn't strong enough yet to... To protect them...»

She observed the man for a few moments, finding an expression so sympathetic and sorrowful that it left her speechless, even though it was possible to notice it only through the exposed gaze. If the ex-SWAT had continued to keep the dark shields on, it would not have been easy for her to guess how he was looking at her.

«Damian stayed with me and my uncle for six years, during which time we continued training. Two years ago, we found those mercenaries thanks to the information Helga Hartmann gave Damian. And with my uncle's IT skills, we forced them to meet without their knowledge in Limerick, Ireland. Damian let me choose what to do with them.» She took a break, squeezing in her shoulders. «I killed them all, quickly, without giving them too much time or energy. Their deaths wouldn't give me back my family, my life, and killing them made me just as _monstrous_ in the end. It was the first and only time I ever killed people, I was only nineteen. But I had to do it, you know? I could have asked Damian, but it had to be me who pulled the trigger. I had horrible nightmares for months. I keep having them every now and then, but it had to be me...»

The fists once again clenched on the table returned lying down after a deep sigh: Selene had not realized she had clenched them until her eyes, fixed in an imprecise spot in front of her, on the table, on the plate, on the two front windows, had followed the rigid line of her arms. She shook her head as she released the tension in her wrists, her fingers trembling imperceptibly on the shelf.

«After that event, my uncle and I separated from Damian. I haven't seen him or heard from him in two years. I chose not to know where he is, unlike Artair, who instead knows the place where he moved to just in _case_. I know my instructor feels guilty about the way I was raised, the way things went for me and my parents, but there was nothing he could have done to avoid it. If he had been there when those mercenaries attacked us, he would have died too. If he had refused to train a six-year-old child, he would have risked a worse fate. I know he always felt guilty about this...»

Selene carried a couple of fingers to her left cheekbone, pointing to the seahorse tattoo, but when Jensen realized that she was referring to the scar underneath it, the man's body stiffened for a few moments.

«Damian hit me with the butt of a rifle when I was eleven, scarring me, because I had attacked some of the guards with my powers and almost got myself killed. My father had his arm broken defending me at that time.» The girl sighed, just giggling with a snort. «Damian always felt guilty, that's why he helped us escape. And even though I never _read_ his soul after my parents died, I know that he was aware of the confusing feelings I had for him, and he must have felt guilty about those, too.»

Adam nodded, having perceived in turn what kind of feelings it was.

It was normal for a child who grew up in a hostile and depriving environment to give in to emotions that were too big to handle. It was almost obvious that Selene had developed that kind of attachment to her instructor, the only other person, besides her parents, whom she presumably knew from birth.

The young lady cleared her throat to hide a hint of embarrassment. Her blue eyes were gentle, softened, the simple possibility of focusing on Damian gave her relief from the terrible memory of killing her relatives.

«It was only with time that I realized they were feelings dictated by a kind of psychological addiction. With this I don't deny my affection for him, on the contrary, I found there a better meaning, but certainly nothing comparable to that adolescent confusion that I wasn't able to understand for a long time...», she concluded, giggling and finally resuming eating the second slice of pizza, ending it with a couple of bites.

Adam had remained listening to Selene's words in a religious silence, attentive to any change in the tone of her voice and the movement of her body.

The girl had once again been extremely sincere, even in her physical reactions: Jensen remembered the slight tremor in her breathing when she told about her parents. She had not repeated it, probably to omit too gory details of her past, but Adam remembered Artair's words perfectly.

Witnessing the death of her mother and father at the age of thirteen would have caused scars much deeper and more painful to anyone, much more terrible than those Selene had _hidden_ through her tattoos.

The young girl sighed, responding to the intense gaze of the ex-SWAT. «You've stopped eating...»

The man collected himself for a moment, looking at his empty plate and then at the pizza box, still with four slices — they had eaten two of it apiece, but theoretically, they should have eaten two more each.

«It's not because of what you told me», he said.

He recognized a veil of guilt on the face of BlueDevil's niece, spotting a small smile of apology on her rosy lips. It was so easy for the man to recognize what she was surely feeling, the sordid sensation that Selene's story had literally whetted the appetite of the ex-SWAT.

«Hey», started the girl tilting her face, «now who's lying?»

Her blue gaze moved to the laptop on the shelf, the turned-on screen in protection mode. She remained silent for a little while before taking a deep breath, letting her shoulder posture tell him that she would get up from the table any minute.

«I'm sure my uncle's files are ready. If you're not hungry anymore, you can check them while I clear the table.»

Adam watched Selene move away from her chair in a calm motion, drinking the last sips of her beer, tilting her face upwards and retrieving her ceramic plate to put it in the sink, washing her hands directly there.

The agent reached her as she was about to turn around, sliding the plate he had used into the sink, passing a mechanical arm next to the young woman's shoulder.

The girl gave him a surprised look for that sudden closeness, having to tilt her head quite a bit to stare at him. Her body's response was felt in a natural heartbeat just a little louder, as her hands moved forward to stop herself, touching the man's abdomen for a few moments.

«Oh, I'm sorry...», she whispered.

Adam found himself legitimately surprised by that reaction, as if Selene had felt embarrassed for having been so close to the man without realizing it. Perhaps it was because of the slight contact, which he did not even care about.

The only hypothesis that the agent considered reasonable was that the girl had guessed how much Jensen still considered his mechanical limbs as something foreign to his body, while the torso was still _his,_ made of flesh and blood.

She had touched his carbon hands with confidence and kindness, certainly to point out that she was not intimidated or disgusted, at most fascinated, but had not touched him intentionally on his face and chest, those areas of him that had remained the same, despite everything. Perhaps she was still convinced that Jensen resented that kind of contact.

In all honesty, Adam was not at all disturbed by the possibility that Selene decided to touch him on those relatively _natural_ parts of his body, not after she had pressed her feminine palm against his face. _Something_ inside him suggested that he had every right to be touched with that kind of kindness. He had the right, but he didn't deserve it, he couldn't desire it. Not by her, at least. It shouldn't have been Selene who gave him that kind of relief.

He watched her move to get away from him with a small smile, seeing her reach the table to lower the top carton of the pizza box, leaving it there, and taking the empty glass bottles to throw them in the trash. The agent took advantage of that short wait to wash his hands, finally moving close to the laptop while she did the same.

When they were both in front of the screen, Selene realized she had to unlock the computer; she spotted Adam out of the corner of her eye bent his face in a completely different direction, so he wouldn't look at her while typing her password. She couldn't help but let a soft smile slip because of that kindness.

She selected the folder created in an encrypted section of the hard disk, making the first data visible and placing herself slightly on her side to allow the agent to read with her. She noticed the expression of the man getting dark, shaking his head as he raised his hand to point to a section of the text that had a name he had _clashed_ with quite recently.

«Versalife has acquired the structure that belonged to Belltower», he muttered, beginning to understand why McTavish had asked for his opinion on the matter.

«So the purchase through the Russian government was a front?», the young woman asked, continuing reading other parts of the documents. «I can't tell if it's luck or not, but the complex is located near the town of Hradec Králové, an hour's drive from Prague.»

The ex-SWAT shook the head again, rising slightly from the forward curved position. «This is all rather strange, it seems that someone deliberately left a trail to lead you and Artair to that place. And if I'm honest, my intuition tells me it will be the same for the military complex in Yakut-Sakha.»

The girl watched him, nodding. «The assumption that anybody knows what my uncle and I are trying to do is a little more probable.»

«Yeah, and I don't like it at all, especially if it's someone from Versalife», Jensen replied, confirming in turn with a nod.

«What do you suggest we do, then? Like this, it sounds like a trap», commented the girl in a serious and attentive tone.

«It probably is, but you're not going there alone this time», he continued, ignoring the surprised look of the hacker's niece.

He was fully aware that he had automatically confirmed a request that had been pending for several days. Because Selene also knew how much the confrontation with Helga Hartmann had again made Adam doubtful about her direct involvement in those future _missions._

«Will you accompany me?», she smiled.

«No, _you_ will accompany me. Although you're surprisingly good at hand-to-hand combat, I have the most experience with infiltration in the field.»

Selene just giggled, staring back at the PC screen. «I'll print out the files so you can study them at home.»

Adam didn't know why he decided to answer for the first time with a very specific sentence, aware that he awakened the girl's inclination to let slip comments and allusive jokes, but he did it anyway. Perhaps, in reality, he just wanted to put aside what he had heard and what had made her so gloomy during the dinner. Perhaps he wanted to tell her that he didn't mind her involving him with an improbably spontaneous physicality. Subtly inappropriate, but spontaneous.

«Where's all this rush to send me away from? Do you no longer enjoy my company?»

Perhaps he should have listened instead to that latent feeling that _screamed_ athim how inadequate the desire to be touched by her again was. Involving her in his torments was not an option. He should not have stayed for dinner, he should not have spent those hours with her.

Selene gave him an astonished look, a corner of her lips raised in a smile initially of disbelief and then turned into an amused sneer. She turned her back to the computer, sneaking a little between the furniture and the body of the man, both hands placed on the edge of the shelf behind her in an obviously flirtatious gesture.

«No hurry on my side. You can stay here all night for me», she said, bending her face a little to the side, a smile accompanied by an eloquent look. «The couch is available.»

Jensen shook his head, enjoyed it. «I can't believe you'd _actually_ let me sleep here. Are you planning to invade my personal space at night?», he added, pointing to a vague spot across the living room with a wave of his hand.

The girl brought a hand to her face, giggling again. «No, trust me. As comfortable as it is, the couch isn't exactly suitable for two people unless we put out the mattress underneath. But _we might as well_ use the bed if _we have to_ » _,_ she continued, seeing a look in his eyes that caused a genuine redness, readily ignored to add the rest. «But, you know what? Diuk sleeps with me in the room, he's not used to sleeping alone: betrayal is not in my nature, so I'll reconfirm the couch, for you. Maybe we'll postpone the night invasions to celebrate the successful infiltration into the Belltower facility.»

Adam raised his hands in a hypothetical sign of surrender, going back a few steps. Though decidedly surprised by such initiative — was that _little girl_ really shamelessly joking about the possibility of having sex with him? — he could not materially hide the slight elevation of the lips surrounded by his beard to smile at her. At the end of the day, he had provoked her himself; there was no point in being grumpy or embarrassed.

«You don't exactly have the gift of common sense», he told her in a less serious tone than expected.

«Unlike you, who seem to have too much for both of us», she teased him. «I was kidding, though. We can celebrate already tomorrow night», she added, giving him one last wink.

Jensen gave her an exhaustive look, his arms slightly stiffened along his hips. He really couldn't believe that Selene could be so brazen as to openly allude to something like that. She probably must have guessed how much the man was used to letting such comments slip over him.

He wouldn't have laid a finger on her, even if he had to for some absurd reason. It was one thing to exploit irony in a clearly playful conversation, even if he wasn't the type to let certain jokes slip through his fingers without broad confidence with that particular person, but it was quite another matter to exploit irony to convey a sincere message.

In that case, he knew very well that Selene was merely going for the first _option_ , she wasn't serious. There was no way Selene was serious. She said it herself. She was kidding.

She was kidding, right? The social enhancer was giving him very few clues to assume that she could be sincere, so why bother?

He watched her turn towards the computer to start the printing process, presumably remotely connecting her laptop to some device left somewhere in the apartment.

Diuk, who may have heard the familiar sound of his name, approached Selene with the rope toy back in his teeth, shaking it slightly. She bent down to grab one end of it, but the Bull Terrier moved sideways lazily to be followed, though he suddenly turned back to touch with the toy the agent's shoe.

The girl looked at the scene with an amused smile, while Adam crossed his arms to his chest, an eyebrow raised as he stared at the animal and looked at Artair's niece shortly afterward.

The young lady moved with a nod to the door on her right. «Checking the printer is doing its job. I'll be right back. If you want, stay and play with him for a while.»

The ex-SWAT watched her turn after a brief moment of hesitation, her long purple hair forming a small semi-circle around her tiny back. He moved to follow her, Diuk who went after him with the rope — dealing with a dog who clearly wanted his attention left him rather restless.

He found Selene on the left side of the room as she carefully stacked the already printed sheets, in front of the work desk under the two windows; he spotted a little to the side, in the corner nearest the doorway where he had stopped, an old-fashioned armchair practically identical to the one in the living room used as a clothes stand, including his ACRNM coat, clear evidence of a somewhat messy habit that made him smile for a moment.

The dog trotted to the foot of the bed on the right, jumping on it to start rubbing his back on the lavender duvet.

Selene took one look at the animal and then turned to the man at the door, her calm blue gaze as she watched her guest take a minute to quickly study the environment.

She was embarrassed to think what of _compromise_ could be in the room and, _yes_ , she had forgotten to put back a grey bra attached to the handle of the walk-in closet and a sweatshirt with the now faded Deadpool print hanging unevenly from a corner of the headboard.

«You shouldn't let him do that», Adam commented out of the blue, nodding to the dog.

The young woman squeezed herself in the shoulders, smiling, glad that Diuk distracted the guest enough with his mere presence.

«I like to feel the weight of the dogs they give me while I sleep. It relaxes me.» She went back to the printed sheets, waiting for the operation to be completed. «My rest is usually quiet by now, but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night after some dreams and... And it's as if I'm still at Horus Field. No animals of any kind were allowed there, not even a fish. Feeling the presence of a dog in the room brings me back to my present-day much easier.»

Adam did not respond immediately, shaking his head in a gesture of denial.

He didn't take a single step beyond the doorway, the fact that that was Selene's bedroom gave him the strong feeling that he shouldn't go into that small intimate environment. Although he was certain that the furniture there belonged to the landlord and not to the girl, everything he could see showed details of Selene's personality.

He simply stayed on the open door, returning to her not to linger too long on those very _details_.

«I'm sorry about what happened to you», the agent said in a serious tone.

She barely nodded without looking at him. «Don't do that.»

The man barely raised his head, not at all surprised by those quick words. He knew he was right about being too _apprehensive_.

Selene crossed her arms to her chest in a defensive nod, a physical response that anticipated what she added shortly afterward.

«Don't think of me as a fragile creature or one who deserves compassion, sorrow or mercy.» She watched the printer work on the last pages, arranging the stack already created with care and precision. «That's the worst thing anyone could have in store for me. I want to be treated like everyone else. I tell you about my experiences because I know it's the only way to make you trust me.»

Adam showed a subtly surprised expression, weakly biting his lower lip. «What do you know about earning my trust?»

She took one look at him, scrutinized him. «Because even though I promised not to _read you_ , you keep doing it on me with your social enhancer.»

The ex-SWAT had a moment of hesitation, amazed by that comment made so spontaneously. Selene burst out laughing slightly, taking the last printed sheet from the device.

«It doesn't bother me, Adam. If that's the quickest way for you to feel... Well, uh... To you feel comfortable with me, it's not a problem», she said.

She placed the documents inside a paper bag taken from a desk drawer and approached the man with the folder in her hand, handing it to him, but changed her mind at the last second, holding it up between them in a waiting gesture.

«Just», she added, «don't treat me like if I were a child or someone to be saved or helped. I don't have to prove anything to you. You've seen what I'm capable of, and if I had had to, I wouldn't have spared myself at Helga Hartmann's. I don't want to think I have to prove myself to you. I don't need to.»

Jensen was considerably surprised by those statements made in such a proud tone. Although the timbre of voice used was calm and colloquial, Selene's blue eyes burned with a feeling of retaliation that only blossomed with him on that occasion, showing a sudden pride that left him quite astonished.

That girl could only be twenty-two years old, but she definitely possessed strength and temperament much more mature. Hers was just a symbolic façade built to perfection, with those extremely youthful attitudes that made her as tenderly _unstable_ as a storm. A mask to protect herself from people trying to get close to her, of which she was perfectly aware: she had always been sincere, he could reach that conclusion precisely, but Artair's niece had carefully chosen how to relate to others.

The man took the envelope, staring his host in the eyes. «You have no hair on your tongue.»

Selene barely smiled, carelessly clutching her shoulders. «Better make it clear that I don't need Prince Charming, Jensen. If I'm going to fight with you, I want someone I don't have to fear absurd gestures or thoughtfulness from. If you get shot, it'll be because you'll fuck it up, not to protect me from bullets.»

«Hey...», he began, raising his free hand as a sign of surrender. «I got the message, Selene. We're not having a pissing contest.»

The girl burst out laughing, moving sideways to reach the armchair under the window with a step, retrieving the coat of the man to hand it to him.

«Even if I wanted to race you on that, I'm afraid you'd still beat me with... Well, uh... You know...»

The agent gave a quick nod of dissent as he picked up his coat, a corner of his lips raised as he followed her into the living room. «I'm sure you're thinking about something polite.»

Selene tilted her face to one side. «Of course. I would never dare allude to some part of your body.»

The agent took one look at her with a genuinely condescending expression, unwilling to respond to the provocation and ignoring the fake innocent look of the girl.

Jensen left the envelope on the table and the coat on a chair. «Can I use the bathroom before I leave?», he asked, turning to the girl.

«You know the way», she replied, nodding to the other half of the living room.

When the ex-SWAT closed the door behind him, the weak click of the lock made Selene smile.

She took advantage of that moment to put the four remaining slices of pizza in a food container to put them in the fridge — she was sure that if she suggested to the man to take them home, he would have something to say about it. She folded the pizza box to throw it in the garbage and finally moved to the couch, the guitar case left open not far away.

After a brief moment of uncertainty and after looking at the time to make sure it wasn't too late, she grabbed the musical instrument and leaned her buttocks against the back of the sofa, on the side closest to the center of the large room.

She strummed a couple of notes for simple enjoyment, Diuk came out of the bedroom intrigued by the _mysterious_ sound. She ignored the noise of the toilet flush, followed a few moments later by the water that came out of the sink tap for a few seconds.

When she heard the bathroom door open, she heard the man's few steps as she continued to pluck the strings of her guitar, turning slightly towards him to understand why he had stopped, interrupting herself in turn.

Adam took a long look at her before he picked up the pace, passing the sofa shortly afterward. Selene had thought that the man would go to the table area to get his things and leave, but instead, he stopped next to her, leaning against the back, to the right side of the girl.

Selene raised an eyebrow, surprised by that decision. She let a small smile slip before she put all her attention on the musical instrument, starting to play slowly.

_Can you tell, I've been hiding from the storm?  
Can you see, I don't want to be here anymore?  
I want out of the darkness in my mind  
But what if they don't find me in time_

Jensen placed his robotic hands on the couch behind him, his face bent towards the young lady and his legs slightly crossed over: watching Selene play and sing was something he was still quite charmed by.

_What am I gonna do with all this[war paint](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0p0YQEH1H0)?  
I'm running out of battles with my name  
What am I gonna do with all this war paint?  
I'm tired of searching, ready for something to go wrong_

Her voice was calm, gentle, but the text seemed to drag her into the distant world of her mind, where perhaps those words took on a much more personal meaning.

_Did you hear, I lost my mind again?  
I had tried to find it in the medicine  
It's been known to kill everything else  
But sometimes nothing is better than the thing that I have felt_

That song had probably been chosen by the girl to enclose in a single gesture all that she had told that night. Adam wouldn't have been surprised to know that such lyrics weren't among those performed at Crannóg: it sounded really too personal, really too intimate, and the fact that she _showed_ it to him at that moment perhaps took on particularly significant connotations.

_What am I gonna do with all this war paint?  
I'm running out of battles with my name  
What am I gonna do with all this war paint?  
I'm tired of searching out of habit  
Ready for something to go **wrong**_

When Selene concluded, a particular emphasis on the last word of the text, she remained for a few moments with the guitar in her hand, her face down. Once she slid the instrument to the floor, she turned to look at the agent, looking for a feeling on his male face that she could usually recognize in anyone who heard and saw her _perform_.

Her heart was beating painfully in her chest, like if that precise silent response from the man was far more important than thousands of others she had already seen during the shows at Crannóg.

She knew very well how much that feeling of intimate research reflected her. Perhaps, in some absurd and unpredictable way, Adam Jensen would help her find what she didn't even know she wanted.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Adam had left after a few minutes, retrieving the coat and the envelope, and recommending the girl to block the access from the maglock on the side of the front door. If he had practically broken into her house a couple of hours earlier, it was also a direct consequence of the young lady's carelessness, who had admitted that she had forgotten to set the command via computer for various reasons.

Selene accompanied the door after seeing the dark shields cover the eyes of the agent, the folder under the overcoat tucked into a pocket inside the clothing to protect it from light rain.

She waited a moment leaning her back against the wooden door as she looked at Diuk sitting in front of her, wagging his tail, barely listening to the man's footsteps on the nearby steps. She waited a couple more minutes before wearing comfortable shoes and a heavier, slightly scruffy jacket to walk the Bull Terrier for an evening tour of the neighborhood.

Once back home and dried the dog carefully, she moved in front of the computer to close all the accesses; she reached the bedroom shortly afterward to change her clothes, wearing ones much cleaner to get under the covers, Diuk who curled up next to her legs stretched out as soon as she turned off the light from the lamp.

It was relatively easy to fall asleep, her sleep was continuous and without dreams to remember, relaxed and remarkably restful.

The next day she took Diuk back to his owners after a long walk, returned home to change into her sportswear and took the metro to the university district for a morning run of a couple of hours, just to make sure that her body had fully recovered after the events of the previous Sunday.

She returned to her apartment in time to avoid a thick, pouring rain, relaxing with a quick shower and taking time for herself until lunchtime, warming up the pizza of the night before as a meal.

It was inevitable that she would return with her memory to the few hours she spent with Adam: the way the man related to her left her genuinely surprised, and she had no doubt that Jensen was equally aware of it.

What had happened after the events at Helga Hartmann's villa had brought her closer to him in an unexpected, though pleasant way.

She had told him that she wanted to trust him, intuition suggested that she could seriously consider that hypothesis, but in fact, on that occasion, hers was just an attempt to try to understand why Jensen was so determined to stay on the team with Artair and her.

She wasn't really sure she could let her guard down, she never was and she wasn't even sure it would ever be, but being honest enough to convince him to do the same seemed to be working after all.

She knew how difficult it could be for another person to accept a total stranger: she was a stranger for him, and he was the same for her, but if they had to work together in the field they could look for symbolic common ground on which to develop everything else.

A weak and fragile part of herself, the one she still felt locked up in a world of oppression, fear and terror, forced her to keep in mind that anyone who tried to hurt her, use her, or kill her, would have paid dearly for that mistake.

Adam was not excluded from that possibility, especially since she had decided that she would try to welcome him momentarily into that part of her life.

_Momentarily_ , just long enough to find the answers she and her uncle were looking for.

If, in the meantime, the relationship between the girl and the agent transformed into mutual respect, Selene would not have hesitated to give in to the possibility of undertaking some form of less _professional_ acquaintance with that man, provided that he too was of the same opinion.

Selene didn't have many friends.

Artair was her uncle, and after the infiltration in France, she needed to separate from him. Damian was far away, who knows where, and calling him a simple friend was as wrong as she could do. Řehoř, Hélèn and Nela were just simple acquaintances, they had no idea what the two Scots were really doing in Prague; all they knew was that Selene's parents had died in a tragic accident when she was a child and Artair had been the closest relative to whom she could turn for custody.

Selene didn't have many friends, to be honest, she couldn't afford to have many, but if she had to be completely honest with herself, she wasn't really sure that her definition of friendship was the most common one among _normal_ people.

The environment in which she had grown up, _the way_ she had been raised, had made her profoundly different from anyone else. Even though she knew how to deal with those people who were trying to get to _know her, hers_ was just a mask artfully molded into her true self. It was Damian who taught her how to build that façade — the best lie was one that was much more like the truth.

But despite those thoughts, she was absolutely certain that someone like Adam Jensen was better as a _friend_ than an enemy.

After lunch, Selene spent most of her time cleaning her apartment from Diuk's previous presence, sweeping and washing the floors of almost every room except the closet, and cleaning the few dirty dishes to finish her little homemade task.

It was just after 5:30 p.m. when the ringing tone on her vu-phone triggered for a message. She had ignored the device for most of the day simply because any communication arriving before a certain time was sure to be superficial, but in the late afternoon, it was more likely that Artair would contact her.

She rinsed the ceramic plate that she had just washed, put it back in the top cabinet to dry and left a couple of cutlery in the sink, quickly wrinkled her hands on the cloth hooked to the door above her head, and retrieved the phone from the dining table, activating the screen.

_Hey, Selene. It's Vaclav. I don't know if you memorized my frequency Friday night, but I wanted to let you know that the books you ordered were just delivered in the store. You're welcome to stop by if you want to come here._

Koller.

A small smile lifted her lips, delighted for the implicit confidence in that text.

The last time she had seen the young man had been the Friday night of the previous week, the last time she had played at Crannóg. Before starting her performance with Řehoř Simek, she had practically spent the whole after dinner with the boy, chatting with him at the bar with Artair.

Vaclav had been of exquisite company, kind, helpful and adorably funny. It had been relatively easy for Selene to connect with someone like him; they had the same tastes in a variety of contexts, from music to movies to video games. And it was obvious that she had already memorized his number. She decided to call him at that moment, sure she wasn't disturbing.

The young man's voice responded in a cheerful and confidential tone. « _Hey, Selene. Did you read the message?_ »

«Yes, Vaclav. I had no idea you'd be so quick.»

Koller let her listen to a quick amused laugh, replying shortly afterward with words that she had not foreseen at all. « _Ouch, my dear. Never say such a thing to a man unless you intend to make him suffer immensely_.»

Selene burst out laughing in turn, a little unprepared for that comment; she leaned against the table with her buttocks, her free hand moved just next to her side to find support with her palm.

«Can I come by today? I'll bring you some desserts from the store near my house to make up for my terrible indelicacy.»

« _You've already figured out how to get me_ »,he agreed. « _I'll text you the address of the bookstore._ »

«Great, I'll be there in about an hour or so.»

Once the call was over, Selene took a quick look at the weather and found confirmation that the day could continue with the storm that had enveloped Prague since the morning.

Just while she was still holding her vu-phone, she received the data on Koller's shop, remembering that the place was in the Překážka district.

Adam lived in that area, too, as he was augmented, but she didn't know exactly where. Although it was absurdly unlikely, it would have been rather fun to meet him casually in that district — but why the remote prospect of seeing him left her subtly enthusiastic?

She dressed in the usual boots, padded and tight-fitting jeans, a black long-sleeved cotton sweater, a grey hoodie, the usual black fake leather jacket and the usual grey wool scarf around her neck, tying her purple hair in a high braid to make it easier to protect it from the rain. She slipped into the inside pocket of the jacket credits and vu-phone, finally raising the zipper of the clothes to ensure additional shelter from the cold of November.

The route to the small bakery was fast and quiet, just like the quick stop for shopping; she went back to the Pilgrim Station to take the first available metro ride and once at her destination she followed the directions on her phone navigator to the bookstore.

She spotted the same massive state police presence she had seen on those few occasions when she had reached the augs district. As then, the police were busy checking the square and nearby streets, stopping almost all citizens with grafts to view their documents.

She was surprised not to be blocked in turn, although she was particularly careful not to lose sight of any policeman possibly interested in stopping her. She had no desire to waste time and would use her skills to go unnoticed.

When she finally looked at the red and white building of the bookshop, she couldn't hide a wide smile: the arch around the door was built with stone books and the elegant sign with the inscription _Time Machine_ had the "C" drawn as a complex mechanism of gears and steel parts, bringing to mind a pure cyberpunk style.

A bell placed above the door hinted at the girl's entrance to the shop once the two wooden doors had been moved inwards; however, she had plenty of time to admire the surroundings in ecstasy, while the shelves full of books and that typical scent of paper caused her a wonderful feeling of amazement.

«Selene, there you are!» Koller's voice came from a spot above her, cheerful and warm.

The young lady raised her face to immediately locate the upper floor, the boy standing just beyond the railing. She gave him a nod with her hand and a spontaneous smile, following him with her gaze as he prepared to move down the steps in front of her. Once Vaclav was on the first floor, the girl came towards him, her female fingers raised on the red and black arm for a quick pat while with the other palm she placed the bag of sweets between them.

«As promised», replied Selene, relaxed.

«Ah, you're my salvation. I was just starving to death», the boy replied, nodding to her to move together to the innermost area of the library. «Let's go in the back, I'll make some coffee.»

They walked side by side between some shelves, Selene's gaze fascinated by the number of literary genres on offer and how the whole bookcase had been arranged to be both intimate and captivating.

«This place is a treasure island, Vaclav. Are there really a lot of people who still read paper books?»

«Yes, a fair number, and I must admit, according to my personal statistics, the data is growing.» The young man paused, taking a look at her just before opening a metal door to their right. «Jensen is one of my clients too, you know.»

Selene shook her head, surprise. «Adam?»

Koller took another look at her, walking just behind the path in the room used as a small dining room and warehouse. «You call him by his name, eh!»

Selene shrugged her shoulders in an amused gesture, showing a _guilty_ expression.

«It's terribly rude to tease him, I know, but he's my ideal _victim_ », she said in a hilarious tone. «So our "sunshine" is a guy who reads? Something tells me I should have guessed.»

The boy moved up to a cabinet located over two large desks, the coffee pot placed on it. He retrieved a tray from the nearby pantry as Selene approached in turn, opening the bag with the desserts.

«Oh, yes! Jensen reads a lot and prefers printed books. But in any case, as you can well imagine, he's not only my client from the bookstore point of view», continued the young man, the rather eloquent look of understanding.

Selene knew Koller's second job, they had talked about it during that Friday night, and she had imagined that Adam was one of his patients: having confirmed her curiosity was even more intriguing, but she would never have dared ask for details about the agent, out of respect for his privacy.

Once the coffee was ready, the cups filled for both of them, the two took their places opposite each other on a desk filled with books and printed sheets well moved to the side.

«It's your first time here, isn't it?», Vaclav asked, eating two mouthfuls of the dessert from the tray.

«Yes, even though I'd heard about it. I usually buy books online. In the evening, if I happen to feel like doing compulsive shopping», she admitted, suggesting that detail as a weakness in her passions. «My finances aren't very large, I've already told you how I make my living.»

The boy nodded, taking a long sip from the cup, emulated by his guest. «Yes, I remember, but I didn't realize evenings at Crannóg weren't exactly steady work.»

Selene squeezed her shoulders, shaking her head with a smile. « _It's_ steady, every month my uncle pays me a fee, but I admit there are times when I don't work either as a dog walker or as a guitar teacher, and then I restrict my bills a lot, paying due attention to my usages.»

Vaclav stared at her for a long moment, biting his lower lip and showing a nod of denial to some personal thought. The young lady had expected to hear him say something, but he avoided any comment.

«What is it?», Selene asked, curious.

Koller squeezed his shoulders, taking the tray from the shelf next to him and handing it to the girl, who carefully selected the usual blueberry pastry. When he too had another dessert in one hand he decided to answer.

«I thought that... Well... I work alone here. In the library, I mean.»

Young McTavish immediately understood where the other wanted to lead the conversation, and she had to admit she was quite impressed.

«With me were two people who worked in the store, Kamil and Lucina, but... Lucina resigned after some events last September, while Kamil is... Well... He committed suicide around the same time after his aug papers didn't renew.»

Selene minimized all of her movement, looking at the boy with an expression no longer astonished. She was overcome with evident sympathy for those words, the blue eyes showed all her sorrow for what Vaclav had experienced. She was tempted to reach out her hand to touch his, in an obvious gesture of consolation, but she did not know if it would be something he wanted.

«I've never been looking for someone to offer the job to, so... Well, uh... Why don't you come work here?», concluded the young man with a faint shrug of the shoulders, his face barely lit by a faint smile.

Koller tried not to dwell too much on the memory of when he had discovered Kamil's body; it was Jensen himself who guided him into the small tunnel beyond the underground laboratory on that occasion.

Fixing the Time Machine after Otar's last _attack_ had kept him busy for a long time, but Lucina's resignation was yet another blow he had endured with difficulty. He had begged her not to leave, but even she could no longer bear the pressure of working there, between the situation with the Dvalis and the suicide of their friend.

He had left the shop closed for as long as it took him to recover a little bit, but going back to work was mostly for him.

Selene remained silent for a moment, her lips barely raised in a sympathetic nod that betrayed her next answer. «I am so sorry, Vaclav, for what happened, but I have no idea how to run a business. Wouldn't it be better for you to propose it to someone who already has experience in the field? I wouldn't want to make a _mess..._ »

The boy shook the hand with which he held a dessert as a sign of carelessness, dropping a few crumbs on the shelf. «You don't need experience of any kind, you just need to be able to organize the incoming books according to the shelves and know how to use the computer to place orders and send them by private courier. The hardest part might be to deal with those annoying customers, but... I mean... Your uncle runs a pub downtown. You already know how to deal with customers.»

The girl bowed her face, discovering that she was pleasantly fascinated by the offer, but determined to move with some attention. She didn't want to risk offending Koller in any way. «Are you really proposing that I work for you?»

« _With_ me», he said. «You know, with the bookstore I've got what it takes to sign a permanent contract, to pay your salary, taxes, contributions. Paid vacation and sick days. I don't think any of the work you're doing now guarantees your pension.»

Selene smiled, shaking her head, taking a sip of coffee and finishing her dessert shortly afterward. «A point in your favor, I'll give you that, but are you sure?»

«Absolutely», he replied, the tone made barely funny by his chewing. He took a moment to swallow, placing the cup on the desk after one last long sip. «What are you worried about my offer? Your uncle's reaction?»

The girl just frowned, doubtful. «Artair? Honestly, that's the least of my thoughts, although I suppose the idea of knowing me working here might cause him some doubt: he knows about your double work too, doesn't he?»

Vaclav nodded, smiling. «Oh, yeah», he muttered, picking up another cupcake. «Actually, apart from Kamil's death, Lucina quit for another reason, and I think it's only fair to tell you.»

«I'm listening», she added to entice him to continue, showing him the same understanding smile again.

Koller squeezed his shoulders, the look that turned into a rather obvious admission of guilt. «Just for my second job I had to deal with the Dvalis.»

Selene collected herself, holding the cup in her hands. « _Those_ Dvalis?»

«Yes, that's them», murmured the other one.

The girl waited a few moments before investigating further, her thoughts crowded with questions and curiosity. «I knew there were no augs between them. In fact, I know they avoid them like the plague.»

«And it's true, but until September, when there were those terrorist attacks here in Prague, their leader was augmented, and I was his doctor. This was obviously kept hidden from almost all his men», explained the boy. «If you've been following the news from that period, you'll remember that the Dvalis were associated with a foiled terrorist attack in London during the Safe Harbor Initiative.»

Selene nodded quickly. «Yes, I remember.»

Koller finished the dessert during that silence, retrieving his cup just before he got up to fill it again, followed by the young lady to the corner cabinet even though Selene's coffee was not yet completely finished.

«You know, I haven't confirmed this, but I think it was Adam who foiled the attack at the Apex complex, saved the UN delegates, and arrested that terrorist», said Koller, an accomplice smile on his face.

«What what what?», exclaimed the girl, the expression surprised. «Are you sure?»

«No, but with what I know, it was easy to guess. Obviously, Jensen can't tell me about his work with Interpol, but I don't think I'm wrong.» The young man silenced a moment, his hand with three fingers raised in a nod. «Anyway, don't tell him I told you.»

Selene raised her free hand over her chest covered in the sweatshirt. «Scout's honor, Koller.»

The two burst out laughing briefly, standing near the coffee pot and finding support on the cabinet behind them.

«In any case», Vaclav resumed after a moment, «I don't really have any more contact with the Dvalis and with their boss, who presumably gave himself to the escape, but it seemed right to tell you.»

Selene took a long look at him, bending over shortly afterward. «I haven't accepted the offer yet.»

«I know, that's why I told you», replied the boy, a little smile on his lips before taking another sip. «By law, I cannot offer you an employment contract in which the hours of service exceed 42 hours per week, seven hours a day for six working days, but opening hours are from nine in the morning to ten at night. You can choose to work only those seven hours a day or even the full shift occasionally, but in that case, the following six hours will be paid as overtime. Always bearing in mind that weekly, by law, you may not work more than sixty hours in total. Simply put, if you were willing to work with this solution, you would have to work the full shift three days out of six.»

Artair's niece looked at him for a few more moments before she shook her head in a remarkably shocking nod. «No, wait... Offer me such an opportunity... Vaclav, you really don't want to do this...»

The boy smiled openly, arms across his chest. «I can afford to pay you the minimum wage for this kind of work, overtime is increased by thirty percent, but trust me, I can handle any salary you might have. Just keep in mind, though, that if you wanted to work a full shift every day, I'd pay you those hours overtime, too. I simply can't legally give you a contract of employment for 78 hours a week. I know you wouldn't report me, but if anyone should get suspicious of how many hours you spend in here, I'd have a couple of unions up my ass.»

Selene shook her head vigorously, a quick breath before responding to that absolutely incredible proposal. «I can easily handle long, intense hours of work, even seven days a week, I'm not really a person who gets tired of this kind of activity...»

«Yeah, okay...», Koller interrupted her for a moment. «But you're entitled to your free time.»

The young woman flew over with a vague nod of her hand, taking a moment to evaluate the whole thing. «You know that between this job offer and the subtly thrilling Dvalis issue, you're really tempting me?»

Vaclav smiled slyly, his brown eyes lit by deep enthusiasm at the mere hearing of that comment. «Yes, I'm perfectly aware of that.» He barely nodded, giggling. «I don't know your skills, but I suppose your powers might also make you fit to protect me and the library.» He let a brief pause slip by, eyebrow up at her in a classic doubtful response. «I'm kidding.»

Selene raised her face slightly, guessing in those words a hint of truth. «Someone's giving you a hard time because you're augmented?»

«Not particularly compared to other tradesmen like me, but it happens from time to time. But I repeat, I was joking, Selene.»

The girl smiled at him, drinking from the cup. «Well... I'll think about it, Vaclav. Despite the possibility of having a stable job, in the company of someone I feel comfortable with, I can't silence the impulse to help those in need.»

«Oh», murmured Koller, the slightly out of place look. «No, really. That's not why I suggested you work here.»

«I know, but it would still be all the more reason to do it, Vaclav», she admitted, smiling again.

The young man looked at her for a long time, in silence, surprised by such spontaneity. The fact that the girl had called him by his name so many times placed a certain emphasis on the seriousness of her statements and the pleasant confidence they had established quite quickly.

In some ways, he did not believe that BlueDevil's niece was so willing to put herself at the service of someone she had just met: he knew what events had brought Selene and her uncle to Prague, he knew how much the young girl's life had been punctuated by horrible and painful situations, and he had imagined on her side a more closed and reserved attitude, less prone to sharing and genuineness. Noticing that she had very unusual goodness of mind made him a little unprepared.

Koller finished the second coffee with a few sips, letting himself be guided by that sudden awareness in a light silence shared also by the girl. He placed the cup on the shelf and slid with a calm step in front of her, the expression peaceful. 

«Would you like to see my lab?», he proposed.

Selene raised an eyebrow, greatly intrigued by the question. «Is your lab here?»

The boy nodded to the wooden floor. «Under our feet, but we can reach it from the upper floor.»

The young woman didn't need to hear it twice; she left the empty cup next to the one already on the cupboard and moved to follow Vaclav, her eyes burning with enthusiasm.

They practically returned to the entrance, climbed the stairs and continued to the right, next to other shelves full of books. They passed at a slightly narrower point on the left between two wooden bookcases, reaching a door that led to a private room with a central desk, surrounded by other furniture.

The boy gave her a look full of expectation for what he was about to show her, as they passed the large central desk with the red armchair decorated with golden baroque details, finally positioning themselves in front of the last bookcase at the back.

Koller raised his hand to a red-covered text, pulling it towards him as he watched his guest. Selene's expression of amazement at seeing the shelf open halfway to reveal a secret room gave the other a wide smile.

Artair's niece moved first to look with astonished eyes at the two glass cases on each side, the augmented limbs inside displayed as if they were museum items. Vaclav walked past her to call the elevator via the push-button panel on the right, beckoning her to go inside the steel cabin once the sliding doors opened.

The small room smelled a little damp and dusty and was stained here and there by parts blackened by usury, but despite its not exactly new appearance Selene continued to show an enthusiastic expression.

«It's fantastic», she said as she sensed the downward shift.

«And you haven't seen anything yet.»

Once in the basement, the room that appeared before Selene again left her surprised.

The small corridor immediately after the elevator doors was decorated with paintings posted on the walls, some black graffiti made with spray cans and the grotesque mural depicting half-face of a _smiling_ clown. From the ceiling hung mechanical limbs of all types, sizes and colors, although there was a predominance of Tai Yong Medical's typical orange. The room opened onto a central space divided into sections.

On the left there was an area with a typical doctor's office chair surrounded by a fair number of screens attached to perpendicular supports, separated from the rest by a counter decorated with writing and posters. On the right, there was an open sofa bed leaning against a wall filled with post-its and printed sheets, a low chest of drawers and a simple metal desk on which it was possible to find a laptop left in the lock screen. The three walls surrounding the worktop had been equipped to house an interesting system of fully functional custom servers.

Selene ended the tour without moving too much towards the bottom of the environment, the blue gaze that contained a mixture of exaltation, excitement and irrepressible transport to that place so characteristic. She approached the chair in the area surrounded by the screens, her arms crossed over her chest with amusement.

«This...», she began, pointing to the medical equipment. «Tell me you got Adam to sit here.»

Koller nodded, giggling in turn. «Of course. The first time Jensen really needed my skills was after the bombing of Růžička station. He was there, returning from a business trip, and was involved in the explosions: nothing serious, but he needed me to check his systems.»

Selene shook her head, uncertain. «Oh, I didn't know. I was at home with my uncle during the bombing, when I was still living with him, but I heard the roar of explosions despite the distance.»

«Yeah, a bad story», commented the boy. «Anyway, I guess you can't go to the hospital if you need treatment.»

The young lady reflected on the request, nodding shortly afterward. «Actually, no, but I can't physically get sick, Vaclav», she replied, raising an eyebrow with mischievousness. «Why this comment? Are you proposing to be my doctor? Is it an indirect way of asking me to undress when necessary?»

Koller burst out laughing, taking a hand to the back of his head in a gesture barely embarrassed. «No, what are you saying? It's just that I thought that if you ever need to be stitched up, or if you need to get some implants, I'll be at your disposal.»

Selene smiled, tilting her face. «I appreciate it, thank you. It might come in handy for being stitched up, although my wounds heal very quickly. Very quickly.» She paused, looking at all the mechanical limbs hanging from the ceiling, watching them with detached attention. «But I can't be augmented, Vaclav.»

«What? Why?», asked the boy, the very expressive brown eyes.

«My body would reject the augmentations after a few days. Because of my genetic code which makes me so strong, tough and fast, I would be the person with the most violent DDS. Not even neuropozyne could afford me to live with augmentations.»

Koller was deeply saddened, his face absorbed in silent thoughts that were easy to interpret. «Oh... I'm sorry.»

«What about?», she asked in a kind tone. «From a certain point of view, it makes sense.»

«Yes, I suppose so», he replied, taking a long breath while briefly reflecting on what he had learned about his guest.

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders with a friendly gesture, extending a hand for a pat on the red and black mechanical arm. It was a gentle and colloquial gesture, a slightly more evident attempt at physicality on her part.

«So... Any self-respecting dungeon has an emergency exit. Are you sure you showed me everything?» The girl moved next to the open sofa bed, staring at it with an uncertain expression. «Don't tell me you live here anyway.»

The young man smiled as he reached her while visibly denying it. «No, I have a tiny apartment in one of the buildings in the courtyard you passed before you came to the store, but I admit that I occasionally rest here too.»

Vaclav approached a wall at the back, slightly to the left of the large room, bringing one hand closer to it to activate the hidden passage. Selene reached him with a few steps, once again amazed.

«It leads to the surface via a ladder, directly to a slightly hidden manhole a few meters from the library entrance», explained Koller. «But since this is an extension of the sewer system, I have to keep an eye on it, even though I've sealed off access to the rest in the area.»

Selene nodded quickly, a half-smile on her lips. «And how are you not invaded by rats and cockroaches anyway?»

Vaclav giggled briefly, shaking his head in a nod of consent. «Through rat poison and insecticide.»

He returned to the center of the room, moving a little faster than necessary. His mind tried to bring back to his memory the moment he had seen Kamil's body: it was since then that he could not advance beyond the disappearing wall of the laboratory.

«Hey», he took it in an unexpectedly cheerful tone. «I know this place looks like a mad scientist's lair, but it has style.»

The young woman burst out laughing in turn, following him to that side of the room. «Like the owner, then.»

«Intendressress», he said her.

The girl gave him another smile, slipping her hands into the pockets of the jacket as a simple habit and perceiving the vu-phone vibrating regularly after a few moments, in the inner compartment of the clothes. She lowered the zipper of the jacket and took the device between her fingers, noting the intermittent red light on top of it.

«Oh, I didn't realize I had my vu-phone with low battery. Do you have where I can charge it a little bit?»

Koller approached with his red arm extended in her direction, asking to see the device. «Yes, here at the desk, next to the sofa bed.»

Once in that side of the room, Selene decided to get rid of jacket and scarf completely to keep them distractedly in her hands, sitting on the mattress with her legs crossed, the boots however beyond the side edge. Vaclav took his seat on the nearby stool, occasionally slipping on its wheels as he talked about this and that with his guest.

They chat for a rather long time, constantly finding topics of conversation and telling each other funny and cheerful personal anecdotes.

Selene hadn't felt this relaxed in several months. Despite the constant presence of thoughts and feelings that reminded her of her situation with certain punctuality, why Artair and she were there in Prague, why she no longer had parents to spend days like that with, she was able to try something different and adorable, something that warmed her mind and heart with laughter and genuine fun.

Within herself she knew she could not hope that feelings and similar situations would last forever, her stay in the Czech capital could last a lifetime, just as it could end within a year, a few months or a few weeks. She could still choose to let go just enough to not feel overwhelmed by melancholy and sadness; she could let a boy like Vaclav become someone she could really trust, with whom she could spend normal hours necessary for healthy mental stability.

Maybe she really could get a quiet corner from everything she was fighting against.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Done this one, too.  
> I personally love writing about sub-vocal chats between Adam and Artair, they are two idiots who somehow make it all particularly light and pleasant. As said in the first chapter, Artair is my guilty pleasure, the original character of this story that, in my opinion, has succeeded better.  
> Selene is a bit stereotypical, especially at first, I realize this myself, but what I love about her is her impulsiveness and the innate way she shows her love for the people she cares about. Selene is confusing, chaotic and indomitable, pure imperfection, while Artair is much more "perfect" in his reactions and feelings.  
> Having myself some slight obsessive-compulsive traits, I reflect much more in Artair, the only man who could, despite everything, destroy Selene if he wanted to. Not even Adam has (will have) such "power" over her, possibly only his death could devastate her, but Artair would be able to destroy his niece in unimaginable ways.  
> The relationship between the two relatives is something well thought out and which I hope to demonstrate at best.
> 
> Anyway, who, in Selene's shoes, would accept Vaclav's job offer in a hurry? I mean, the Time Machine is a daydream.  
> I did a couple of research on the pay issue, trying to find out the best I could. If you think that in the first version I hadn't included the topic of the shift, Selene's situation would have seemed unprotected, from a professional point of view. Maybe I wrote some bullshit anyway (in Italy by law the weekly hours must not exceed 40 hours, maximum 8 hours a day).  
> I honestly wonder if in the canonical world of Deus Ex the two colleagues of Koller were in the bookstore for all the opening hours or took shifts. We will remain with this question unanswered.
> 
> Ah, last note: the song War Paint by Chasing Jonah obviously gave the title to the fanfiction but its lyrics are particularly similar to Selene's story.  
> It's amazing how sometimes so many things get stuck together thanks to the writing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Small personal conflicts between Artair and Selene will push Adam to intervene on them, with a decidedly predictable outcome between Jensen and the girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: drug and alcohol use.  
> I wasn't able to add some music used for the writing/correction of the chapter, so I leave them here, free to choose whether to listen to them while you read or not, because this part of Adam and Selene's story is definitely accompanied by a similar soundtrack.  
> [Le Castle Vania - John Wick Medley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBvf7KUEZ78) and [Devil May Cry 5 OST - Devil Trigger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLHdJIat0ZM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1YUH8DOZr0Pza1rLZBlfm11wYumAOuYyb2BiDMsRUeCd7OQUggG_D5oFM)

Selene had no idea how a quiet late afternoon with Vaclav at the Time Machine had brought both of them after that _working day_ in a warehouse in the suburbs, with the intention of joining an impromptu mid-week rave.

After all, it was only Wednesday, they should not even have considered the possibility of such an overnight event.

Actually, the young woman knew very well how easy it had been to convince each other to accept that thoughtless proposal without too much concern. Being able to spend some time having fun in a situation that they had not both attended for several months, for more or less similar reasons, had pushed them towards a single answer. They had promised themselves that they wouldn't be too late and that they would simply spend those hours listening to loud music and dancing like two kids on their first outing away from hypothetical boring adults.

While they were still in the lab, legitimately tempted to order food at Chicken Foot's for dinner, a sound signal alerted them to the presence of a customer who had just entered the bookstore. They hurried up to the upper floor with the elevator, Koller was immediately busy taking care of possible buyers and Selene was busy snooping around the bookshelves.

The girl put on her jacket and scarf again to keep her hands free, taking the time to choose two more books over and above those that the boy had already ordered over the previous weekend and which had presumably been put aside for her. Once the customers had completed their purchases and left, Selene approached the young man raising her hand to hold the two novels she had just selected.

«Let me pay the others too before I decide to buy more», she said in a subtly exasperated tone.

Vaclav chuckled at her expression, retrieving a sturdy envelope from under the desk containing the texts ordered by his guest.

«You know if you come to work here, you get a 30% discount on the cover price?»

The girl reached out her hand with her fist against his shoulder, a simple gesture on which she nevertheless decided to pay extreme attention for her innate physical strength.

«Don't tell me that! You're a tempting devil...»

Koller sneered by giving her a terribly conscious glance of his _low blow_ , beginning to calculate the total purchases.

«Why all these novels at once, anyway? You read quite voraciously, too?»

Selene shrugged her shoulders, preparing the credits to pay.

«Obviously», she began with a fake haughty expression. «It's actually a late birthday present.»

The boy stopped counting, observing her. «Oh, did you have your birthday recently?»

«Yes, on November 5th. Two weeks ago, more or less. Today is November 21st, right?», asked the girl with a barely dubious look.

«But then I'll give you a discount on the total based on your age», he replied with a smile.

«What? No, you don't have to», she protested, laying one hand on the red one of her host.

«How old are you? Your uncle told me when you were born, but I have a horrible memory for such things.»

The young lady remained silent for a few seconds, the amused expression she tried to hide with a fake exasperated attitude. «I turned two, can't you see?»

Koller gave her a freshly wrinkled look, a raised eyebrow and a raised lip corner in a smile. «If you like, I'll gift them to you.»

Selene could do nothing but shake her head energetically, bringing her arms forward as a sign of surrender. As astonished as she was by such willingness, she felt deeply happy that the doctor was implicitly giving her that present.

«Twenty-two years old. I swear!»

When the payment was finally completed, the girl stayed with Vaclav in the shop, chatting while no other customers were there and waiting for him for as long as necessary when there were buyers.

They ordered dinner as planned and ate it in the main room of the library, sitting on one of the sofas near the stairs. Once the meal was over, Koller made no secret of an absurdly persuasive attitude, asking Selene to help him tidy up some books left out of place.

They both knew very well that it was a way to induce the young girl to give in to the job offer, a really functional gimmick with which he had no _scruples_ to tease her.

It was while Koller was showing her the warehouse computer, intent on explaining to her with fake interest how easy it was to complete some errands for the store, that the boy's mailbox suddenly opened on the preview of an interesting message.

They calmly read all the information about the rave in the suburbs, an evening where _naturals_ and augs could participate, as long as they paid a contribution to the location and the general running costs.

They took a gaze at each other and in the end didn't even want to discuss or dwell on the idea that it could be a horribly organized event — a likely hypothesis since some parts of the message seemed very vague.

Vaclav would have closed the bookstore in about twenty minutes and Selene had no commitments of any kind.

She decided to leave the books in the shop, together with the wool scarf, which was decidedly uncomfortable at an impromptu rave; Koller was extremely quick to take a shower and change into clean clothes in his apartment, leaving her in his living room to rummage through the large music library, which he boasted about with immoderate pride.

They hurtled into the street to reach the subway shortly after half-past ten in the evening, hoping that the rain would not surprise them again after arriving at the closest metro station to the rave.

The organizers had set up the location in a huge warehouse located in a little-frequented area of the capital. Concrete walls had been cleverly placed inside the structure to separate the different sections of the ground floor level, while the remains of other demolished walls suggested that the place had been abandoned and taken back for illegal use.

Selene and Vaclav knew they wouldn't be leaving so soon at the exact moment they started drinking one beer after another, as the place was getting fuller and fuller by midnight.

For her, consuming alcohol was a way to lighten her mind in a blurred way, but Koller, although discreetly resistant, after the fifth bottle began to show signs of slightly more persistent drunkenness; nothing too disabling, but for the young lady it was all too easy to see in him some shaky steps and some less coordinated movements.

Selene couldn't help but keep an eye on the doctor, even if she seemed overly apprehensive: she had no idea how Vaclav could react to alcohol, she was afraid to see him disappear for the bathroom to puke and never come back. Beyond that, the thought that Koller was there to relax for his recent mourning flashed in her mind when he was the one who distractedly resumed the speech of the death of his friend and colleague Kamil.

She was all too aware of what the boy had been through: in that kind of situation, the risk of ending the evening with a sad hangover was definitely at hand; not forgetting the small detail that Koller was also under neuropozyne.

How did that drug react with alcohol?

All Selene did was to forbid Vaclav from drinking anything too strong. Obviously, she didn't take an authoritarian attitude, but she simply managed to convince him with words, giving him the certainty that he maintained a sort of decision-making power regardless.

She invited him to dance in order to quickly eliminate the effects of slight dizziness caused by the ingested beer, guiding him to relatively freer areas of the club without being pushed by the crowd regularly.

When they were warm enough, they decided to get rid of the excess clothing, paying the person at the entrance who kept the wardrobe — between the alcohol and the number of individuals in that place, the temperature was far too high, even though outside the warehouse it was 41° F.

At some point in the evening, it was easy to find people to entertain, drink and _talk_ to — could shouting to be heard over the deafening roar of the music be considered an effective method of communication?

Selene pondered for a few necessary minutes the idea of letting herself be _dragged_ by a group of her peers into one of the corridors of the building, near the public baths.

At first, she had observed Koller give in without delay to the kind offer to smoke some joints, also because he had once again acquired enough lucidity to tell her that light consumption of alcohol and marijuana did not conflict with neuropozyne. It was seeing him relaxed and calm, definitely master of his actions even if much more cheerful and exuberant than expected, that convinced her to accept the same offer in turn.

She wasn't used to smoking weed, but in that situation, she had a fervent desire to give it up. The psychotropic effects of cannabis would fully awaken her senses, erasing the mild mental torpor she had slipped into with the beer she had drunk.

To reach that state of total abandonment caused by the drug, she would have had to consume literally several pounds of marijuana, _eating it_. Smoking it would not have the same effect, but taking cannabis-based meals with a high THC percentage would have caused her a rather funny state of bliss — for just a couple of hours.

She could _talk_ about it because she had already tried several drugs for the simple pleasure of trying them. Her uncle was not at all enthusiastic about it, but Selene could not physically suffer the long-term effects, under any circumstances. Her body would get rid of the toxins absorbed through sweat and urine within hours.

She received the umpteenth round of joint from a girl with whom she had been even more spontaneously chatting, dressed in a short purple dress and knee-high boots, her hair dyed black long beyond her shoulder blades.

Selene observed her with a curious smile, seeing her approaching as she bit her lower lip. Once to the side, the _female stranger_ surrounded her shoulders with a naked arm, paying attention to her disheveled braid.

The young lady recognized when someone of the _fairer sex_ tried to make much more obvious physical contact, and she had to admit that in that circumstance she might give in to something equally obvious. Vaclav, in front of them, had _slipped_ with his back to the wall to catch his breath and watched them both with an amused nod.

«So, you two are a couple?», the girl suddenly asked.

Both Selene and the doctor burst out laughing after staring for a moment with an amused expression, making their new friend a little surprised by that reaction. It was Koller who answered, moving away from the wall.

«Oh, God, no. She's my little sister», he said, swaying slightly on the spot for a slight lack of balance.

The black-haired girl glanced at them both again, while Artair's niece snickered in response to what Vaclav had just said.

«Are you really siblings?», asked the other one.

Selene moved away to get closer to the boy, having him lowered slightly to her height so that their heads were more or less on the same level, but facing the other person, cheek to cheek.

«Why? Can't you see the resemblance?», she added in a pure ironic comment.

The girl stared at them for a moment, uncertain, her dark eyes fogged up by alcohol and the rest. «Actually, I guess so...»

Selene felt a little guilty for making fun of the _female stranger_ ; she returned to her side and slipped with a couple of fingers on her bare arm until she reached her hand to hold it gently in her palm.

She wasn't sure how Koller would react to what she thought she was going to do with their new friend, the idea that flashed in her mind wasn't exactly chaste, but she knew she had no reason to fear a possible homophobic response from the young man. She simply couldn't guess if he was interested in that same girl; he probably was, given the way he looked at her, but he tried to hide it so as not to make Selene feel like the third wheel.

«Too bad», the _female stranger_ added. «I thought you were both very cute, and I wanted to ask if you wanted to _have_ a threesome, but if you're related, that's not really appropriate...»

The two gave each other a glimpse of momentum, a brief silent glance in which Koller gave her a subtly embarrassed expression and the young lady let slip an accommodating smile.

Even if it wasn't something she would have evaluated so easily, the idea of having possible intercourse with Vaclav didn't bother her, not like the simple hypothesis of having sex with some other guy of the rave.

In the short time since Selene had made Koller's acquaintance, the doctor had always behaved with a sort of cautious respect: it was easier to guess that he somehow _feared_ her for what she was, without taking negative attitudes.

The boy had been kind and helpful, he even offered her a job in the bookshop, but it was really too easy for Selene to understand how much he was trying to keep some sort of _due distance_. Such behavior did not bother her at all, and she would never have demanded a more expansive or physical attitude from Koller.

There was, however, another equally probable hypothesis, namely that Selene was not among the doctor's preferences. From that point of view, she had very little to question.

The Artair's niece nodded in agreement to Vaclac, a rapid movement of the head in the direction of the _female_ _stranger_. He showed an uncertain, doubtful face for a moment, doubting what to do — he was actually not quite sure what she was saying to him with that gaze.

Selene then decided for him, inviting the other girl to approach the boy.

«I know my brother», she began in an obviously amused tone, «and I'm sure he'll be very interested in spending the rest of the night with you.»

Vaclav's brown eyes showed for a moment a slight whiff of panic as he felt a pair of fingers of the other slip into a light gesture on his belly covered by a green plaid shirt.

BlueDevil's niece moved to his side, placing her hand on his shoulder in the same way to reassure him and make him understand that he did not need to stay with her.

«Just beer and weed, please», added the young lady with a big smile before she got close enough to be heard only by Vaclav. «And if you don't have it with you, get a condom.»

Koller gave her an expression halfway between exasperation and embarrassment, totally unprepared for the possibility that Selene was practically suggesting he could have sex with that girl at the rave.

It would not have been the first time, but he wanted to maintain a sort of stable and innocent friendly relationship with her, without letting her understand what kind of experiences he had already had in the past of his own.

The young man was twenty-seven, she was twenty-two: he somehow felt as if he had to be the one to guide her in that kind of situation, not the other way around, but as deeply hesitant as he was, he didn't want to play the apprehensive idiot.

He let her go to the bathroom after giving her one last look of understanding, giving her a quick pat on the arm covered by the dark sleeve, finally returning to the _female stranger_ after a moment.

The stop to empty her bladder gave Selene time and a way to catch some metaphorical breath — not that she really needed it. She was considering whether to start drinking something a little stronger, precisely because, unlike Koller, she wouldn't be affected much.

When she returned to the great hall, someone touched her hand with a soft, delicate grip; turning around, she saw another girl smile at her, recognizing her among the people she had smoked with before.

«Your brother and Michelle are there, we managed to find an empty sofa», she informed her, pointing to an elevated area near the main entrance.

Selene followed the direction she had just shown, for a moment confused by what she had been told: she found Koller and Michelle dancing next to a small worn-out couch on which were sitting some of the young people with whom they had been talking several minutes earlier. She watched the two of them standing very close, her hands slipping without hesitation on the shoulders of the doctor on several occasions.

Selene let slip a quick sly smile, approaching the blonde who had waited kindly for her.

«Shall we join them or can I buy you a drink? As long as you dance with me afterward.»

«I don't ask for better», the other one smiled.

Her name was Jana, she was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and had the soft, thick body of a person who did not practice physical activity, but for that reason was no less fascinating — quite the opposite. She was a rather Nordic beauty, about eight inches taller than Selene and dressed in black tight trousers and a shaped top of the same color that squeezed her soft and plentiful breast, making it much more evident.

There were many occasions in which Jana herself, made much craftier by alcohol, moved with Selene in a sinuous and cheeky way, getting closer and closer to touch her body while they were dancing, sometimes lifting a hand on her breast or touching her butt wrapped in jeans. But despite her boldness, young McTavish knew that Jana's sapphic experiences were not very thorough. She noticed this from the way the blonde tried to caress her and from the way she tried to assume a slightly dominant behavior.

Not bad, though. It wasn't a problem for Selene to entertain herself with a casual, _undersexed_ partner. She would have put Jana at ease very soon and very easily, she just had to figure out how far she could go directly there at the rave and then consider whether to continue elsewhere, in her own home or the blonde's.

She suddenly realized that she missed such an evening, far from her thoughts and busy doing something absolutely pleasant for herself. It hadn't even been long since she had literally enjoyed the company of a girl — two girls, to be honest, during her birthday — but the whole recent situation her uncle _created_ with Adam was a bit frayed.

She felt herself in the right place at the right time, feeding in the _right_ dose those feelings she knew she had the right to experience on her skin.

She took one look at Vaclav at an imprecise moment, after another shot of tequila shared with Jana, simply to make sure he was still where she had left him; she barely saw him in the crowd while he was sitting on the sofa, Michelle straddling him to deepen, it seemed, their _knowledge_.

Selene smiled amusedly, turning again to the blonde to take her hand and approach her ear to say something over the constant roar of the music.

She did not doubt that the night would bring pleasant surprises for her too.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Although Adam preferred to finish the bureaucratic paperwork for the TF29 in his home, staying overnight in the offices below the Praha Dovoz allowed him to alternate between his desk in the upstairs hall and the shooting range near the entrance.

Since his arrival shortly after eleven in the evening he had counted a couple of armed operatives, a single cleaner in the cafeteria area and a few scrupulous and solitary analysts like him. He had only given someone a handful of minutes to talk to, limiting himself to simple casual conversations when the opportunity arose, but he had returned to his schedule quickly and without many conversations with his colleagues.

Although he had been particularly interested in doing anything else during the day, he could not ignore the professional need to complete the final reports for Task Force 29 before his actual return after his _forced_ vacation. He knew that precisely because he had shown up to the office several times in the previous days, he would be called back to duty ahead of time and did not want to be left with any backlog of work.

The night before, when he had returned to his home after staying at Selene's, he had studied the printed documents and continued to study them during the following day. Before dinner he had informed Artair of the need to organize an infiltration into the structure of Hradec Králové, exposing to the hacker the doubt that it could be a trap — a doubt that the hack had also pondered in total autonomy.

He knew that BlueDevil would research the best outline an action plan, with the idea of not doing anything hasty so as not to leave anything to chance, but if they waited too long the trail could get cold and not lead to something concrete to work on.

It was for that reason that Adam responded to the man's call even though it was about fifteen minutes to one in the morning.

«McTavish, what's up? Why are you calling me at this hour?»

Artair on the other side of the line just sighed, mortified. « _Hey, Jensen. I hope I didn't wake you up._ »

«No, don't worry. When I sleep, I turn the HUD off, even though I have an emergency call system. I'm in my office right now.»

« _Sorry to bother you anyway, it's nothing serious, but I wanted to ask if something happened yesterday while you were with Selene._ »

That question made the agent stand up on the spot while he was near the metal lockers to retrieve his coat, intent on reaching the food court for a coffee.

He couldn't prevent his body from stiffening just as much as he couldn't control a slight clouding in the shields-covered _alien_ eyes, but in that space, he was fortunately alone.

«No», replied the man, rethinking in his mind about the two hours he spent at the girl's house. «Nothing in particular happened.» _Other than seeing your niece naked._ «Why are you asking me this?»

The agent stepped out of the firing range by triggering the retractable access, passing through the central space full of desks, screens and computers to reach the cafeteria and activate the kettle beyond the counter. The environment was illuminated with softer, clement lights, giving the surrounding space a more relaxing effect.

« _Because my niece hasn't answered the phone for several hours now, and usually when she does that she's pissed off for some reason. Unless she left her vu-phone somewhere, it would be just as typical of her._ »

Adam barely sighed, waiting for the dark drink to be ready.

«On the first hypothesis I can confirm that as long as I was with Selene there was nothing that could have made her angry, but during the day I neither saw nor heard from her.» He poured his coffee into a paper cup left by the dispenser. «How long have you been trying to call her?»

« _Late in the evening or so, I made the first call around 10:00 p.m., then waited half an hour, but after 11:00 I called her several times and got no answer._ »

The hacker paused, sighing, leaving time for the ex-SWAT to take several sips.

« _At this point, I assume that she forgot her vu-phone somewhere, because it's not like her not to answer without a good reason, and trust me that she would have pointed it out to me somehow._ »

The silence that followed was interrupted by another uncertain puff.

« _Thanks anyway, Adam, and I'm sorry again for..._ »

Jensen shook his head, quickly swallowing the sip in his mouth, making a faint throat sound to gently interrupt McTavish.

«Do you want me to go check if everything's okay at Selene's house?»

Something suggested to him that BlueDevil was caught by the same concern that had surprised Adam the previous night just before entering the girl's apartment a little too quickly. What had happened at Helga Hartmann's mansion continued to make them deeply wary.

« _That's not necessary, I can go to her place too._ »

Jensen finished the coffee with a few last sips, throwing the cup into the nearby basket and passing a hand through his hair, finally resting it on the back of his neck to apply light pressure.

«It's not a problem, Artair. I'll call you as soon as I get there and give you an answer. Give me about fifteen minutes.»

When Adam came out of Praha Dovoz he was struck by the night-time weather and the soft scent of rain that from time to time kept wetting the streets and buildings. In that area of the center, the sewage system was preserved more carefully and it was more difficult to find rubbish thrown on the ground.

Guided by a slight sense of déjà-vu, the man lit a cigarette before walking away, reaching the Libuše apartments with a calm but quick pace. He climbed the stairs to his right and once on the landing he saw the maglock at the side of the door set to "closed".

A small smile rippled his lips at the thought of the previous evening, finishing his cigarette before knocking weakly. He waited a few moments and then tried again a couple of times, trying not to make too much noise so as not to disturb any neighbors.

With a hint of uncertainty, evaluating the pros and cons of his thought, he decided to activate smart vision to probe the environment of the house, looking for a source of human heat. With discreet attention, he probed the space beyond the doorway for several minutes, without detecting any presence inside. To be absolutely sure, he had to go in and check for himself, but he was not sure if he wanted to break into the girl's house again.

He contacted Artair to inform him anyway. «McTavish, I'm outside your niece's apartment, but I don't think she's home.»

« _She doesn't answer you?_ »

«If I couldn't see over the walls through my augmented eyes I'd say yes, but since I can, I'd say there's no one there.»

The hacker waited a moment, uncertain. « _Is the door to her house closed? Because if you think that'll help, I know the access code to the maglock._ »

Jensen remained silent for a moment, examining the idea proposed by the other and considering it unorthodox. «Are you suggesting I enter Selene's house at night while she's presumably not there?»

BlueDevil hesitated a moment before answering, sighing. « _Maybe she just went out to go somewhere and forgot her vu-phone at home. But the choice is yours if you want to go in or not._ »

At that last part of Artair's words, which had so much the bitter aftertaste of a _blame game_ , Adam shook his head, wondering metaphorically how the hell he was letting himself be convinced to really consider that hypothesis.

« _I'll tell you what, I'll try to locate the GPL signal of her phone and tell you if it's inside her apartment._ »

The agent let slip a faint grunt, a verse of exasperation directly from the bottom of the throat.

«I understand your concern», he began in a serious tone, «but are you suggesting I go into your niece's house anyway? Besides, locating her vu-phone isn't too much... Don't you think she might be bothered by such an invasion of her privacy?»

« _She won't find out._ »

Jensen really understood the lawful apprehension experienced by Artair, but he had no intention of making the same mistake as the night before: even though Selene was not in her house, entering without her consent was a deeply disrespectful action.

However, he couldn't avoid feeling a bit upset by that behavior, which according to BlueDevil was mostly typical of possible tensions between his niece and the hacker. If during the previous evening there had been any communication problems between Adam and Selene, he was absolutely sure that the girl would have been the one to point it out.

No matter how much he tried to avoid that bizarre feeling of uncertainty, a part of himself felt uncomfortable thinking that the young girl was who knows where at that time of night. She might have left her vu-phone at home and gone out for simple entertainment, just as Artair had said, but perhaps, in their situation, it was better to be much more scrupulous.

«All right, give me the code», the agent murmured, approaching the maglock with one hand raised to immediately push the sequence.

« _1408_ », replied the hack.

«Sounds familiar», Jensen admitted while keying.

« _It's the title of a horror movie my niece loves, set in a haunted hotel room. I'll update you as soon as I locate her vu-phone._ »

Adam smiled uncontrollably, thinking how obvious it was that Selene appreciated such a movie genre: once inside the apartment he didn't need to look in the direction of the wall beyond the sofa to see the big screen on the wall and the bookcase beside it, filled with books and collections of various original films.

«Selene, are you home?», did the man, waiting for a few moments in the dark lit by a couple of spotlights left on in low power mode.

The apartment smelled of clean, the young girl probably must have sanitized the environment after returning the Bull Terrier to his true owners.

As he predicted, no answer came to him. He decided to move towards the bedroom, knocking faintly on the door and pushing it a little later, looking at some clothes left on the bed barely in disarray and looking at some other garments on the armchair.

Being caught by the memories of the night before left him quite surprised. It was like a sharp image in his mind, the figure of Selene a few inches from the desk waiting for the printer to finish churning out sheets, Diuk rolling back on the bed, the same lavender blanket pulled in that case only on one side.

Selene might have been sleeping on the side closest to the wall cupboard, in the symbolic certainty that the further away from the door, the safer she was from intruders — a sort of atavistic decision experienced by many people.

If several hours earlier Adam had not dared to cross the imaginary line of the doorway, at that moment he couldn't help but take a few steps into the intimate environment of the room. He sensed a faint trace of perfume, cinnamon and jasmine, near the bed area, where a shower towel had been left, probably used by the young lady shortly before she left.

It was obvious Selene wasn't home. Maybe Jensen could have used smart vision to locate the girl's vu-phone, in which case she left it there somewhere.

When McTavish called him again, he was seized with a faint feeling of guilt, as if he was lingering in that place for the wrong reasons.

« _Hey, Adam. I located my niece's vu-phone in the Překážka district._ »

The ex-SWAT listened to him mute for a moment just before adding out loud the address corresponding to the coordinates just traced by the hacker. He, in turn, remained silent for a few seconds, quickly connecting that address to a specific place in his mind.

«I think it's Koller's bookstore.»

« _Oh..._ » Artair cleared his throat, hesitant. « _I'm not sure I want to know why Selene is with Vaclav at this hour._ »

Jensen realized he was holding his breath for a moment, snorting a doubtful grunt in response. «I don't think I want to know either.»

McTavish sighed deeply, doubtful about how to evaluate such information. « _Well... Maybe she went to his bookstore and forgot her vu-phone there. Selene reads a lot. She may have been shopping._ »

The agent moved out of the apartment, closing the door behind him and reactivating the lock from the security panel.

«Probably, but the Time Machine closes at ten o'clock at night.»

BlueDevil hesitated a few more seconds before answering.

« _Well... My niece is an adult, and she can spend the night with whom..._ » He paused, snorting an exasperated sound in turn. « _I'd rather not think about the possibility of Selene sleeping with Vaclav._ »

Adam had no control over the little grimace that furrowed his lips as he walked down the steps of the apartment complex. He was not interested in the matter in any way, yet part of himself felt that possible behavior was completely reckless.

Under what arrogant pretext did that _little girl_ think she could compromise a professional collaboration like that?

When the man realized the reflection he had just pondered, he gave himself the answer: Selene and Vaclav did not have to _work_ together, and although his doctor had long ago claimed to be attracted to older women, the girl certainly had her charms.

Jensen took a moment, subtly incredulous at the implicit admission he had just made to himself.

« _Hey, Adam. You there?_ », Artair called him back in a puzzled tone.

The man cleared his voice, stopping at the opening that gave directly onto the road, the Pilgrim's Station very close to his position.

«Yes, I'm listening.»

« _I'm sorry I got you involved in this ridiculous situation._ »

«No problem, I offered to check it out personally, after all. Good night, McTavish.»

« _You too, Jensen._ »

The agent listened for a long time to the silence following that call just broken from time to time by the wind among the few trees and the nearby buildings. The neon lights of the suspended structure of the Versalife sent bright flashes of light all around, alternating visions in red and blue.

The agent could return to TF29 to continue his night there, the subtle need to spend the remaining hours at the firing range until the next morning, but when he decided to return home, he knew he would make a short detour a few blocks. He used one of the last metro rides to Překážka and after about forty minutes he found himself in front of the closed entrance to the Time Machine, hesitating just before deciding what to do.

Contacting his doctor was a simple attempt that he assumed would go unsuccessful, sure to find his infolink predisposed in rest mode, but when the line was activated without problems, he immediately regretted the choice he had just made.

« _Hey, Jensen._ »

Vaclav's voice was a bit louder and a little bit more trailing than expected, being a bit too harsh compared to the silence that had surrounded Adam until moments before.

«Koller, are you home?»

Just as the ex-SWAT finished saying that question, he heard the other one just giggling, clearing his throat shortly afterward and then giggling again.

« _Ah, wait a minute..._ », did the young man. « _Uh... Yes, I'm listening, Jensen._ »

«I asked if you are home.»

« _What? No, I'm not home._ » After another very brief silence, the rest of the sentence let frown the other man's eyebrows. « _Ah, no, stop, wait. I'm talking to someone..._ »

Listening to a quick giggle provoked in Adam the immoderate need to interrupt the conversation immediately. He turned around to get to his apartment, the idea of pouring himself a glass or two of Rusterini&Moorks before going to bed.

He definitely needed to forget what the hell his doctor was doing at that time.

«Is Selene there with you?», he asked for who knows what reason.

« _What? Well... Yes, she's here, but..._ »

The agent cut him off abruptly. «Well, tell her she left her vu-phone somewhere and that her uncle's been trying to call her for several hours.»

Vaclav waited a moment, the tone unsure as soon as he answered. « _Ah, fuck, that's true! She must have left it in my lab. As soon as I see her, I'll tell her._ »

Jensen stopped a few inches from the uphill steps to the nearest passageway, the well-protected manhole on his left that attracted silvery flashes from the local streetlights. He remained silent for a few moments before shaking his head.

«Didn't you just say you were together?»

« _Yes, we're in the same place, but I honestly lost sight of her because we're... Oh, no, stop. Wait, it's not the right time..._ »

«Koller», warned the ex-SWAT, the deeply annoyed tone of voice.

« _Sorry, Jensen, I'm just a little busy. I'll let Selene know as soon as I can_ », and he ended the conversation after he gave a quiet giggle at someone else.

Someone who wasn't BlueDevil's niece.

Selene and Vaclav were together somewhere, presumably in a place where the young man seemed to have found a precise kind of company: he couldn't say whether the situation was better or worse than he had previously assumed. And he couldn't say whether it was wise to inform McTavish.

He cast a glance in the direction of the access to the bookcase behind him, the decorative arch that surrounded the large door closed by the security system, and then took a quick look at the nearby manhole, the round slab worked with engravings typical of many areas of the city of Prague.

He shook his head in a nod and tried to call Artair, quite sure to find him still awake anyway: he had a vague suspicion of how BlueDevil must have felt uncomfortable at the idea that his niece was in the company of a boy in the middle of the night, without having said anything to anyone.

« _Adam?_ »

The hacker's surprised tone of voice made the agent sigh with a hint of exasperation.

«I called Koller. He and Selene are together somewhere, I don't know where, but not in the _way_ that you assumed.»

He paused for a few moments, recalling an equally important piece of information.

«Oh, and your niece's vu-phone is in my doctor's basement lab, she left it there.»

McTavish waited a few moments before answering. « _Thank you, Adam. I actually wanted to take a look at Vaclav's GPL signal, locating it in an area in the suburbs, but at least now thanks to you I am a bit more relaxed._ »

Jensen shook his head again, tried to light a cigarette before going home for good. «So, you know where they are?»

« _Yeah, I did a couple of researches after I got the exact coordinates. They went to a rave. Illegal, no doubt, but it doesn't distinguish between naturals and augs._ »

Another pause made the two men puff differently, Artair with weak resignation and Adam with subtle exasperation.

« _I can't say whether or not that makes me feel good. My niece has a bit of that "why not?" to "yes, I do this shit because I can" attitude in a matter of seconds. I know she can handle it, I know she'd never put herself in a dangerous situation, but I also know what kind of... You know, stuff like that goes around in these places and during these occasions. And Selene knows that her body can't take the long-term, negative effects of certain substances, but..._ »

Jensen tilted his face, a little grimace to lift a corner of his lips. He felt almost _affected_ by the same apprehension as Artair.

He had no right to tell Selene what to do with her life, but he knew the effects of alcohol and drugs because during his career as a policeman he had seen what conditions people could get into. He did not doubt that the girl, thanks to the experiments she had undergone as a child, could not suffer specific reactions, but it was McTavish himself who was worried about her.

«Let's go get them both _by the ears_ , then», proposed the ex-SWAT with a weak shrug of the shoulders. «Vaclav should behave a little more adult, without letting himself get _dragged_ into these situations. Although I have a feeling that those two probably dragged each other.»

BluDevil burst out laughing, the tone just divided between genuine fun and legitimate doubt.

« _Oh, it would be ironic to show up there and take them home, but they're adult, Jensen. And if my niece begins to see me as too parental and authoritarian, I'll have to expect even more irresponsible behavior: Selene doesn't appreciate being cornered, you should know that by now._ »

The agent rolled his eyes beyond the shields, duly entertained in turn. «Yes, I admit I've had that impression quite often. In any case, I've made myself available, but if you prefer to avoid it, _the choice is yours_.»

Artair seemed to fully understand the hilarity of that comment, in response also to the way the hack had left it to Jensen to decide whether or not to enter his niece's house while she was not there.

Adam waited in silence for the other man to take a few more seconds to consider what to do. When he heard him exhaling noisily, he knew he was going to talk.

« _Thank you for your willingness, but I might as well go alone. I'm still sure those two won't be back to their respective homes before dawn. I'll make sure to call my niece in the morning and tell her about Hradec Králové._ »

At that comment, the ex-SWAT straightened his shoulders and head, waiting a few seconds before responding.

«What should you say to Selene? We examined the files together yesterday.»

« _Well... Theoretically, it would be ideal to do the infiltration tomorrow night, but if my niece takes the trouble to come home after colossal drunkenness, or after... Uhm... Using something else, it is wise to postpone._ »

Jensen let slip a faint verse of anger, greatly surprised by that hypothesis. «I'd say you should have said that to me, too, McTavish. But Selene can't act so irresponsible if she knew that...»

Artair interrupted him calmly, his tone of voice gentle despite the hasty clarification.

« _Here's the thing. She didn't know, so she didn't actually do anything wrong if she chose to spend a night having fun. At most, the only blame we can put on her is that she left her vu-phone at Vaclav's lab, but even then it's not really a fault: it can happen to anyone with a mobile device and not a brain implant._ »

Jensen found the hack was right, even though he was not particularly predisposed to ignore such reckless behavior as Selene's; he risked seeing the possibility of finding _presumably_ important and useful information about Versalife disappear as soon as possible. Waiting still wasn't a valid option, especially if there were decisive opportunities to carry out that mission smoothly.

« _Thanks anyway, Adam, but I'll call my niece in the morning. Contact me anytime you want to..._ »

Jensen cleared his voice, turning towards the manhole to access Koller's laboratory directly from the secret passage.

«No, if going to Hradec Králové tomorrow night is the best track we have, we must not postpone it just because Selene ignores something like that. You'll tell me the details during the drive. I'll be under your house in about forty minutes, first I'll retrieve your niece's vu-phone from the bookstore. If you have the opportunity, prepare already the information available about the structure.»

The hacker remained a long moment in silence, unsure how to react to that stance. « _All right, I'll wait for you. See you later._ »

Jensen closed the conversation without responding verbally, once again letting out an exasperated sigh.

He could also accept the idea that all that ridiculous situation had resulted from a simple coincidence of events, but he had no intention of giving in to absurdly reckless behavior on Selene's part, not when he had had the opportunity to see how much more responsible and mature the girl really was than expected.

BlueDevil had decided to behave more softly, but Jensen had no constraint or scruple to forbid him to show himself more rigid with the young girl: a mistake could cost them a lot, and it was the case that Selene was equally aware of it.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

The journey by car was not particularly long since at that time, almost three o'clock in the morning, the traffic to the outskirts of Prague was considerably reduced. Finding parking near the warehouse where Koller's GPL had been located was also very easy and simple.

The fact that it had taken them no more than thirty minutes to get there hadn't given Adam and Artair enough time to fully discuss the next day's _mission_ , but the agent had already begun to draw up a certain set of more or less adaptable action plans.

When the two got out of the car, Jensen waited on _his_ side of the vehicle for the other man, guessing without much trouble what structure they were to enter.

The area had suffered heavily from the consequences of Hugh Darrow's madness in 2027. It was a neighborhood that had been home to a large number of augmented people in that year, and in some ways, _naturals_ didn't seem to want to live there again.

Somehow it was normal that the place had changed enough to host undoubtedly illegal events, turning into a den of lonely drug dealers and prostitutes left behind — but despite those reasons the most common public transport still passed through there.

Someone at the entrance to the facility tried to extort credits from them, but Adam was pragmatically unavailable, unscrupulously using his Interpol badge and threatening to call in other law enforcement agencies less likely to tolerate that kind of nighttime event.

Once inside they had moved to an area where people were only approaching to move in more interesting and useful directions, fortunately leaving those few feet a little freer. The deafening music had hit them just like the stench of alcohol and sweat, making them twitch their noses on several occasions.

It wasn't particularly pleasant for Artair to be there. Knowing that his niece was in the middle of that noisy crowd inside the main hall caused him a burning sense of reproach.

He knew very well how unwise it was to try to stop some of Selene's behaviors altogether, he knew very well that he had always been able to sedate them to a minimum, but he couldn't help thinking about it, wondering how he could convince the girl not to engage in such activities anymore. Or at least to devote herself to them with greater prudence, without letting herself be carried away by situations or events that could have led her on an even more uphill and impassable path.

Artair did not need to be hypocritical in his niece's eyes, because in the past he had led a wild and undoubtedly _lively_ life for several years, and those years had led him to move away from his sister Sheena, leading them to take very different paths.

No matter how much he tried not to think about it and wondered every day if he could have done something different, he was unable to put aside the subtle guilt that vibrated beneath his skin in the quietest, most tormented hours of his mind — _oh_ , if he had even imagined the events that would affect Selene and her parents' lives...

The vague sense of inadequacy that pervaded him was diluted by a brief pressure on his shoulder, while Jensen, beside him, attracted his attention by placing his hand for a few moments. As soon as the ex-SWAT had the man's brown eyes on him, he nodded his head in a certain direction.

Adam's gaze, always hidden by the shields, had probed the environment with some attention, even if rather quickly. Jensen had located Vaclav on a sofa near the entrance, allowing BlueDevil to do the same with that quick gesture. They both knew that the best way to find Selene was to ask the young doctor directly.

Approaching the boy, they observed him slightly turned on his side, almost leaning against a dark-haired girl who had unceremoniously wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held one leg covered by a knee boot over Koller's, while the other seemed particularly interested in tickling her neck with his lips.

It was the _female stranger_ who noticed the presence of the two men beyond the armrest on the doctor's side, looking at them at first with an interrogative frown and then probably perceiving a certain insistence and urgency.

When Vaclav felt a bizarre stiffness in Michelle's body, he initially wondered if he had done something rushed with his red hand squeezed on her hip. He moved aside to look at her as soon as he felt the young woman's fingers patting with a hasty gesture near his neck, following shortly afterward her gaze toward a spot behind him.

On the face of the boy, at the sight of Jensen and McTavish, a series of rather funny and alarming expressions followed one another. When he got up, the drunkenness, not completely overcome, was felt in all its power: he staggered slightly and fell without balance on the sofa, hitting with his black arm Michelle's rib, who let slip a sound expletive.

Adam raised an eyebrow beyond the shields, his lips contracted in a hard, severe line, leaving Artair to speak.

When Koller managed to get up more calmly, a few seconds later, he looked at the two men with lost eyes. «What's going on? What are you doing here?»

The draggy tone and not exactly fresh breath made the hack shake his head.

«Where's Selene?», BlueDevil asked, getting a little closer to make Vaclav heard.

The doctor stood up slightly, swaying on the spot as he took an unsure look at the two of them, then turning to the young woman on the couch and finally probing for a few seconds the surrounding environment, the face that was already giving an obvious answer.

«Uh... I...», he began, uneasy, carrying his red hand in his hair and putting it in front of him with his index finger raised. He turned to Michelle, approaching her ear. «Where's the girl who was with me?»

She looked at him for a perplexing moment, shaking her head. «Your sister?»

Adam frowned, crossing his arms to his chest, while Artair repeated that two words he had just heard in a disconcerted tone. Koller gestured to overlook the matter, nodding to the other.

«Yes, her», he quickly confirmed.

«Well... She was with Jana, they were dancing near that area until about half an hour ago, but they moved to the bar on several occasions to drink.»

All three followed the direction of the raised arm with little conviction: the point indicated was beyond the central part of the large hall, in correspondence with a slightly raised space, while the counter set up at the beautifully positioned left. It was easy to make out the furthest wall of the structural recesses, perhaps the remains of the original walled windows.

Artair was on the verge of walking, but Jensen stopped him, getting close enough to make the hack heard him better.

«I'll go, I'm taller than you and I'll have an easier time finding her. You stay here with Vaclav in case your niece decides to come back. As soon as I find her, I'll contact him through the infolink», he concluded, pointing to his doctor with one hand.

The agent had to thank his discreetly threatening physical appearance for the way the crowd moved far enough away to allow him to pass, even though he could not completely avoid physical contact with strangers.

He had already seen environments like that too many times, where human nature gave vent to rather private personality traits, acceptable almost exclusively in those situations. They were places that had the bizarre gift of awakening sensations and desires that remained confined and enclosed between walls stained by the humidity and heat produced by moving bodies.

When he attended the police academy in Detroit, he had participated in such evenings on very few occasions. He had never been a lover of that kind of party, but those rare occasions when he had been dragged to raves at a very young age, he had always remained rather aloof. It had simply never been the kind of fun he was looking for, and despite the years, that preference had never changed.

Adam initially checked the area of the bar, detecting an even more acrid and strong smell of alcohol and sweat. He slipped past heavily drunk people and people who were dancing with excessive heat, slightly grainy eyes and a patina of sweat on the skin of crazy faces — it didn't take much to realize that they had taken some drugs during the previous hours. He carefully overcame the entire length of the battered counter, making sure not to skip over any nearby, barely visible spots where it would be more difficult to find Selene.

Finally, he reached the slightly elevated area through a couple of worn-out, fairly wide steps, moving towards a less crowded corner to turn around and check the nearest section of the room from there.

Despite the distance and the crowd of people in the middle, he could see Artair just a few steps away from the sofa on which, presumably, Vaclav had sat. The hacker seemed to be busy even from that point in search of his niece, often looking around.

Jensen, in turn, has resumed his _study_ of that part of the large environment. He moved along the wall to his right, looking more closely at the people around him and trying to identify any details that might make it easier for him to find BlueDevil's niece. And incredibly he succeeded, because, like a flash in his mind, the vision for a few moments of the tattoo of a seahorse made him move a few more steps towards the wall to the side.

It was hard not to be surprised by what he saw afterward, not actually by the actions consumed before his eyes covered by the shields, but by the intrigued and at the same time the watchful expression of the young woman.

Selene was sitting in one of the walled recesses, her back leaning against the rough concrete behind her and one leg wrapped in dark jeans raised against her belly, while the other remained dangling calmly over the low edge. She held an almost empty beer bottle in her hands, playing and slipping with her fingers on the dark glass in the allusion of an intimate and pleasant caress, the sleeves of the black T-shirt rolled up to her elbows. Her usual purple braid was a bit untidy and messy, while several locks had escaped to encircle her slightly reddened face on her cheeks.

The young girl's blue eyes were turned with scrupulous inclemency to a blonde girl with a soft body who danced seductively in front of her — turned to her — while a black boy dressed in a tank top and light jeans rubbed himself against the female stranger without much ceremony, squeezing her breast under the silent gaze of the other.

Selene took a sip of her drink, smiling slightly in response to the blonde's hands suddenly resting on the little space between her legs. Jana arched forward to get closer to the girl, some female fingers that slipped curiously on the knee protected by the jeans that followed the corner of the ledge, climbing slowly in the direction of the thigh just above.

At that movement, the black man bent, in turn, to follow the woman in the gesture, pushing himself further against the buttery buttocks of the girl he was groping without any shame. Jana let slip a faint hint inaudible in the chaos of that place, tilting her face in a questioning nod towards Selene.

Artair's niece raised her head slightly as she felt the pressure of the blonde's hand slipping with a bit of uncertainty towards the inside of her thigh, observing the actions of the two with a sort of watchful caution. She drank again from the bottle, finishing the beer, trying to drive away that faint hint of uncertainty, finally raising an eyebrow as she responded to Jana's implicit request with a nod of dissent.

When the little blonde rose, raising her arms to hold the head of the person behind her, Selene watched them kiss passionately without hesitation and control, their tongues sometimes visible and the lips of both squeezed sporadically between weak bites.

The young woman tilted her face and sighed faintly as she saw the neckline of the other one even more evidenced by the firm and secure grip of the male fingers, those fingers that pinched and touched carelessly of anyone who could observe. She leaned forward carrying her leg bent to the same level as the wall, leaving the bottle empty next to her and returning with her boots to the floor after a mellifluous movement.

Jana took one last curious look at her, taking a hand with hers to invite her to join in the kiss, but Selene shook her head again, ignoring the fleeting caress that even the stranger on her forearm reserved for her.

There was no doubt what Jana and the black guy were asking her, but even though she had had until half an hour earlier all intentions of taking the blonde home, in that situation she only wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.

She moved sideways with kindness so as not to be surly or agitated, and it was at that moment that she saw a familiar figure to her left, stopping at first with a surprised expression and then letting a comment slip through her fingers.

«What the fuck?»

Adam Jensen stared at her from behind the dark shields, the coat that made him look more impressive than she remembered, despite his arms being held rigidly along her hips. When she was close enough to him, the man simply nodded to her with his head in the direction of the exit, immediately giving her his back.

In the antechamber set up as a wardrobe, she found her uncle and Vaclav waiting for them, who had already recovered her sweatshirt and her fake leather jacket. She glanced at Koller while Artair took a serious and attentive look at her, his expression incredibly inscrutable. She barely had time to put the rest of her clothes on before she saw her relative walk through the door with a quick step, deciding to go after him while her braid was still stuck over her collar.

«What the hell are you guys doing here? What happened?», she asked once outside, struck by the cold and sudden light rain.

McTavish slipped his hands into his pockets, retrieving something from the inside of his jacket, turning towards her and throwing it at her in an inaccurate parable. Selene still managed to grab the object in mid-air, immediately recognizing her vu-phone.

BlueDevil remained silent for a moment, giving the young lady time to take a look at the men behind her. Koller staggered slightly, arms tight to his chest to warm himself, while Adam held his face down slightly, indicating that he had no intention to intervene.

Jensen had immediately understood from the hacker's gestures how lawfully pissed off he was. Honestly, given the words he had said to him just before he joined him, he didn't think that Artair would be so ready to react harshly; probably, the drive and the short stay at the rave had made him extremely nervous.

«You were having fun, huh?», McTavish blurted out in a tense voice. «Tell me something, Selene. Did you deliberately forget your phone in Vaclav's lab, arbitrarily choosing to ignore everyone's calls?»

The young man next to Jensen moved quickly to defend the girl, artificial hands placed at the bottom so as not to be overly rude.

«No, Artair», began the doctor a few steps away from the two relatives. «It was my fault, I convinced Selene to come with me here in a hurry, and she forgot her vu-phone in my lab because she needed to recharge it...»

The man nodded to him with his head, followed by the quick gesture of an arm. «Vaclav, please. My niece doesn't need help to behave irresponsibly. She can do it perfectly well on her own.»

The girl felt her shoulders stiffened by that comment, showing an annoyed expression after a few moments. Although Koller immediately showed a much more submissive attitude, she had no intention of giving in to that ridiculously authoritarian attitude.

«If I'm such a disappointment, I'd be the same tomorrow morning. You could have waited until a better time to tell me that, without putting on this patronizing act and without showing up here with him», she replied, pointing out the ex-SWAT behind her back in a grumpy move.

«Hey», said Adam in a serious tone.

He approached with a calm step, leaving his eyes still covered to be inscrutable.

«Are you trying to lecture us? Because I don't think you're in a position to teach us any lessons.»

The girl gave him a rather grim look, raising a hand to the agent to point a finger at him. «You stay out of this, Jensen.»

The fact that she had called him by his last name, pronounced in a dry and firm tone, made it well understood how much the young woman did not appreciate his interference between her and her relative.

«Consider going to fuck yourself when I'm arguing with my uncle», Selene added, giving him an uncooperative look.

Despite the dark shields, the ex-SWAT's expression was quite eloquent, his lips tightened in a severe line to indicate how metaphorically he was biting his tongue to not respond in the same tone.

Artair grabbed her hand up with a sudden movement, forcing her to turn towards herself.

«Enough, Selene! Maybe you're not so worried about being a disappointment to me, but maybe you should start thinking about how disappointed your parents would be for your childish behavior.»

The girl's mouth trembled imperceptibly, while those last words dug a far more painful wound into her than those already received in the past. She shook his relative's arm away with a shake that was too fast, repenting shortly afterward for the gesture she had just made when she noticed how the hacker brought his hand back to him, probably slightly sore.

Once BlueDevil realized the words he had just spoken, his expression softened considerably, calling himself an idiot for what he had said without thinking about it.

«Yeah», said the niece with narrow teeth, angry at the way her blue eyes just pinched, _shinier_ than expected.

She didn't want to hurt her uncle, the simple idea of having done so made her even more furious and upset, aware that she would have to vent all those negative feelings solely on herself.

«Too bad my mom and dad are [six feet under](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZgiAgYXneE) the ground rotting and never had time and way to express their disappointment at my questionable desire to spend an evening having fun.»

It was at that point that the girl moved to bump Artair on the arm with her shoulder, putting extreme self-control to make the concept clear without causing him any other possible physical pain; she moved as quickly as possible from the three, her hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket, squeezing the vu-phone in one of them and ignoring the contrite tone of the hack.

«Selene. Selene, wait...», said Blue Devil.

McTavish set about to follow her with impetus, stopping shortly after to shake his head. When he turned again to the two men, he frantically looked for something in the pockets of his jacket, turning several times towards his niece who was moving away rather quickly.

«Adam, I'm sorry. You guys go home in my car. Koller's practically freezing.»

Vaclav followed Selene with his gaze as far as he could, letting a slow nod of dissent slip through his expression. «I'm sorry, men. It's my fault...»

The hacker gave him a quick pat on the shoulder and a small smile, followed by a perfectly visible grimace once he realized that his niece had already disappeared beyond a corner.

«No, don't worry. It's nobody's fault but mine. I went too far...», admitted BlueDevil.

When he finally found the car keys to hand them over to the Interpol agent, Jensen responded with a decisive gesture, ignoring the hand outstretched towards him and overtaking McTavish by a few steps.

«I'll take care of it», Adam said shortly afterward.

«What?», Artair asked.

He stopped him for an arm calmly, trying to better understand the intentions of the ex-SWAT despite the shields making it much more difficult to decipher his expression completely.

Jensen took a long, _hidden_ look at him, tilting his face slightly.

«I know that kind of frustration, Artair, and your niece decided to step away from not taking it out on you. I'll calm her down. You guys go home. Selene and I will take the subway back, don't worry. In a couple of hours, the service will be back on again.»

The hack slipped his hand in an unsure movement, not entirely convinced by that suggestion. «Selene is not your responsibility...»

The agent exhaled just a little deeper, a corner of the lips raised in a half inscrutable smile. «I can calm her down and convince her to come home.»

Artair seemed to ponder that last statement for a long time, looking the man in the face with a rather questioning expression.

«You mean... You're referring to your... What did you call it...?»

«The social enhancer», confirmed Adam with a sure nod.

He was lying again. He knew it.

The truth was that continuing to use the CASIE mod on the girl was beginning to be a no longer valid idea: in addition to the vague and sometimes incomplete answers that he had increasingly recorded from Selene through that graft, what she had told him the night before at her home was convincing him to _confront_ the girl on equal terms.

But the most important reason was another, and Adam had to at least admit that awareness with himself. Selene no longer deserved such tricks. If he didn't want to betray her trust, he simply had to treat her as his equal.

Artair exhaled again with a perfectly visible movement, nodding in turn shortly afterward, a hand raised to invite Vaclav to follow him.

«All right, but... My niece may find this intervention of yours even more... Annoying. Try not to get punched, Jensen.»

«She has to get close enough first», replied the ex-SWAT with one corner of his lips raised in a quick, gentle smile. «Send the number of her vu-phone to my frequency. As soon as I'm with her, I'll contact you.»

The agent waited no longer, walking in the same direction as the girl a handful of minutes earlier. When BlueDevil sent him the phone number, he wasted no time in making the call.

Unlike him, who could see whoever was contacting him through the infolink, Selene didn't know who was calling her at the time, although she must have had some idea. It was probably for that reason that she didn't answer immediately, running several minutes as the ex-SWAT moved along the sidewalk he was sure of. He paused with a shrill, exasperated noise, near a corner well-lit by the street lamps and tried again to call the young woman, forced to wait.

In the middle of the night and at the end of November, Prague was, as far as the climate was concerned, already considerably unsustainable, but he was not affected by it thanks to his augmentations. The drizzle that had hit them outside the rave alternated with an even more intense cold due to the wind, interrupted from time to time by the movement of clouds that obscured much of the sky.

He had to repeat the call for the third time, shaking his head in a doubtful nod. When he finally heard the girl answer he waited a moment before he realized that she would not say a single word first. He found himself sighing, knowing that it was not a good start.

«Selene, it's Adam.»

He felt a barely audible puff. « _I know._ »

«Where are you?»

« _You call me instead of Artair? He knows I wouldn't answer him..._ »

«No, I sent your uncle and Vaclav home. Koller was too cold because of the hangover», Jensen replied calmly, hoping that placing some emphasis on the doctor's condition would breach the soul of BlueDevil's niece.

Selene remained silent for a few more moments, a tacit confirmation of how much her empathy was trying to emerge even while anger guided her behavior.

« _You had to go away with them. I guess you know where the nearest subway station is. The first available ride will be in a couple of hours_ », she continued, the tone of voice however firm and resolute.

«I'm not going home until you come with me.»

A new moment of hesitation, long enough to give him a little more confidence, made him realize that the girl was starting to give in.

« _Who says I'm not already on my way back? On my own?_ »

«I'd rather check it out personally.»

« _Fuck you, Jensen._ »

Selene interrupted the conversation without giving him time to react and forced him to call her again. He thought that he would have to repeat the action a few more times before having a positive outcome to that umpteenth phone call, but the young woman simply sent him the coordinates of her position via a function of the handheld device.

When he reached her a couple of blocks away, he saw her leaning with her back against a wall; she was holding her arms crossed over her chest and the hooded sweatshirt raised to cover her head, hiding a good part of her face, leaving barely any portion of her left cheek and lips visible.

Jensen quickly contacted McTavish to tell him that he had found her and that he didn't need to worry anymore. As soon as he was near her, he waited quietly for her to raise her head to look at him, choosing not to disable the dermal lenses so as not to let himself be probed in turn.

Her blue eyes no longer had that glow of tears that he had noticed when Artair made that unfortunate comment to her.

Adam had distinctly seen the expression of sadness and pain furrow the girl's face like a slap, and he was upset enough that he didn't know what to do at first.

At that moment the young woman showed only an inscrutable expression, together with the rigidity of the body.

«I'm not going home now», Selene suddenly said, not moving. «I gotta sober up and... And deal with the rest. And I'm better off on my own.»

The man exhaled, tilting his face. «I told your uncle I'd stay with you.»

Selene stared at him for a moment, shaking her head to bend it down shortly afterward. «Jensen, I'm gonna kick you if you dare use that thing on me, I warn you. I can always tell.»

The ma slightly raised his head, letting an amused verse slip out.

«Don't make me use it, then», he teased her a bit.

A poor answer, the agent realized. Using irony wasn't the right solution, not at that time, at least. He wasn't going to use the social enhancer, but she couldn't know that.

The young woman took an angry look at him; she began to show much more vivid frustration, not only caused by what had happened with Artair, but also by the way the ex-SWAT kept that hateful and amused detachment, as if he were still underestimating and belittling her.

«Go away, Jensen. I'm not gonna say it again. I'll get you out of the habit of meddling in situations that don't concern you.»

Adam collected himself for a moment, sensing a peak of unusual tension in his mind, the CASIE mod that gave him feedback in the background on the change in the female tone of voice and on some micro-changes in body posture all the _thinner_ than his own.

Her gaze was deadly serious and charged with a message that the man had seen and read in a few other people. He did not think it possible that he would come to see the same expression on the girl's face, not directed at him, at least.

«Don't threaten me, little girl.»

«And don't push me, Jensen, or I'll make you regret any choice that got you in my way.»

Adam tightened his jaw, lifting his face slightly to look down on BlueDevil's niece. He squeezed his carbon hands against his hips, the shields making his face even more severe, and raised an eyebrow in a nod of challenge, one step closer.

Selene confronted him by moving away from the wall, her arms still crossed at the chest and her body stiffened by the tension.

«Stay out of this, Jensen, or I'll make you go home with your tail between your legs.»

«Take a shot, Selene», he pronounced in a calm and attentive tone, barely ignited by that vibrant sense of anticipation that had blossomed along with the instinctive response dictated by the social enhancer in the background.

Adam didn't physically have time to react to the young woman's hands moving: one moment they were pressed against her, the next they were pressed against his abdomen, in a powerful thrust that made him literally fly into the middle of the street behind him.

He managed, despite everything, to land on his legs even though he had to bend down to slow down the movement by hooking a mechanical hand to the asphalt, causing five thin grooves on the road surface for a couple of meters.

The blow had been quite strong, he had felt a sensation of pain completely awakening his senses and his healing system, tasting a stream of the adrenaline flooding him with any perception, organic and artificial.

Selene gave him a long, trellis look, her lips tightened in a bloodless, expressionless line. «Go away.»

After having said that, the girl turned to her left to approach a closed gate about ten feet high, overtaking it with a leap accompanied by a push in half through a grab on the bars of the same.

Adam saw her disappear beyond the battered doorway of the building into which she had entered, a structure of several floors, at least a dozen or so, which had seen better days and which had certainly been abandoned as a result of the Incident.

The man approached the grille held closed by a steel chain secured by a large numerical combination padlock; he pulled it towards himself to break the hook and opened the access to pass.

It was at that moment that the light night rain began to tap all around the area again, giving the street a faint background noise.

With the smart vision, he was able to locate Selene as an inaccurate heat source several floors above his head. He spotted the stairs after a couple of corridors reduced to a pitiful state, climbing them back up to what must have been a large space in some apartment emptied of everything, large enough to guess _what_ would happen there.

He found the young woman intent on giving him her shoulders, the fake leather jacket and sweatshirt left on the ground in an imprecise heap a few steps from her boots; the purple braid was still untidy and messy, hanging in the exact center of the female back, above the faint fabric of the black T-shirt that showed a good hint of musculature.

«Final warning, Jensen.»

Her voice was barely a murmur, but the agent could hear her perfectly.

Adam sighed lightly, in turn freeing himself from the coat, letting it slip out of his augmented arms and then throwing it a little further away from his position, yet another sleeveless black jersey that exclusively bandaged his torso, tucked partly beyond the belt of his trousers.

The rustling caused by the coat made the girl's head turn slightly over her shoulder in a careful nod.

«Anytime, Selene.»

He had to use the Focus Enhancement to see the young lady's movement, parrying the first blow with his left hand to protect himself from that incredibly fast attack.

The adrenaline rush was felt with powerful vehemence, exploding in his chest and head. And along with that, something moved inside him that he couldn't identify.

He was fascinated and disturbed by it, in a perfect mix that he hadn't felt for too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Adam and Selene are gonna kick each other's asses. Yeah, this will increase the sexual tension between them, as well as bringing them closer from a sentimental/empathetic point of view, but I swear to you that when I started writing this fanfiction, the confrontation between Adam and Selene was one of the first points I outlined in my fangirl mind.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene and Adam find themselves in the war, and in the intimacy of their fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extensively described fight scene, detailed references to violence, death and rape, and hurt/comfort situation.

_[One more soul to the call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfGsw-hLdik) _

It was easy for both of them to _turn_ into the dormant sensations in their minds.

It wasn't a struggle to kill themselves or to tear themselves apart, it was a primal instinct that demanded only to rip off the belief that they couldn't give in to their demons and torments.

They didn't have to be afraid of hurting or destroying themselves, they wouldn't have done it even if they wanted to, but it allowed them to approach that freedom they didn't dare to experience on the rivals they faced and that they would face in the future.

Against their enemies there was a sort of prudent caution, the certainty that they could not abandon themselves completely to the monsters dormant in their souls. But at that moment, exclusively among themselves, they could find some peace in what they had been transformed into.

It was the thorn in the side that was finally being pulled out. It was the breath caught after a long moment underwater. It was the burning muscles and nerves screaming for effort, pain and heat. It was the feeling of being far away in a universe of silence and breathing.

Selene found obnoxiously foolish the idea that Adam responded little to the attacks; he was letting her vent and she needed it badly, but that submissive condescension conveyed a different message, the obvious certainty that the man was driven by an obvious form of compassion.

She could provoke him, exhort him to lead himself close enough to the _precipice_ to see how far the agent could go, how much he could endure before he gave in in turn.

The desire to _grab him and pull him down into the abyss_ with her was strong. She realized that she did not want to hold it at the exact moment when her small, fist-clenched female hand found Jensen's jaw, on the left side of his face and close to his beard.

Selene had changed her approach, sensed how he could predict her attacks and, in the end, decided to show him that it was not compassion or pity she was looking for. She would make him perfectly aware of how wrong it was to treat her with that _care_ she didn't think she deserved — not after what she had done and after what she had been accused of by Artair.

The hit pushed Adam much further than expected, giving the agent just a couple of seconds to absorb the change in that fight. He bent down to regain balance, one palm on the dirty floor along with one bent knee while the other remained raised against his chest.

He lifted his face just in time to see the girl in front of him. Another punch on his face made a stream of blood explode in his mouth, his gaze hidden by the shields just blinded by thousands of nauseating little lights, his carbon hands both resting on the ground.

Selene had managed to _overpower him_ , and this caused a furious feeling of calm in him.

If the initial reaction to that change was to try to still somehow appease the young McTavish girl, Jensen soon realized that continuing to remain defensive was no longer a viable solution.

He could maintain that detached self-control, he could, in turn, change the way he faced her, but he was absolutely sure that Selene would notice and demand a less restrained attitude from him.

If the day before the girl had said that there was nothing to prove to him, at that moment she was definitely denying her own words. It was up to the ex-SWAT to decide whether or not to accept Selene's choice.

There was no need to wonder why she seemed so willing to hurt him seriously: she wanted a sincere reaction from him, a reaction that Jensen had continued to silence her out of fear, the same as he had felt on several occasions since _that_ Sunday.

To admit that he was involved with everything Selene was causing him was the worst of the answers, an awareness that dragged on to nuances that he should have simply ignored.

The young girl's blue eyes, full of contrasting feelings and at the same time proud and indomitable, suggested to him a certainty he would never have believed capable of considering: to give Selene and himself what they both strongly desired.

He defended himself with sudden speed from a knee to his chin, watching the young woman's face contract into a grimace of pain when she hit his mechanical arm instead — an ordinary person would have broken their leg joint from that simple contact.

He grabbed her raised calf and with a firm grip threw the girl over his shoulders. With the Icarus Dash, he was on her as he planted her against the floor, feeling and seeing the body of BlueDevil's niece slightly sinking into the concrete.

Selene had a scratch — and who knows how many others — on her purple hairline, a faint crimson trace had slipped a little on her forehead, ending near her natural-color eyebrow.

Seeing her in that state made Adam unsure again, unable to really continue the fight without sparing her any attack in turn. His reticence was not caused by the fact that Selene was a girl, in his memory he could find powerful women he had not been afraid to fight.

But she had to sense it, saw without a doubt his uncertainty, his indecision, and shouted to him with all the breath in her lungs her extreme need to continue.

«Don't. Stop!»

Jensen distinctly felt the hit against his ribs, a grunt of pain that rekindled that stillness, the ferocity that she wished to feel in her flesh, and that he should not be afraid to show her. Selene could bear it, she wanted to bear it.

He loaded his fist against the young woman's cheek, ending the attack on the side of her head, creating a hole of stones and dust just because she had managed to dodge it. He felt a woman's knee against his chest and was effortlessly lifted from that dominant position.

Selene projected him over her head, following the movement to hit the man's abdomen with the same limb, blocking him to the ground just as he had done with her.

Adam opened his mouth wide because of the pain he felt, and some HUD alarm messages tried to draw his attention to the possibility that that pressure might crush his thoracic diaphragm.

It was at that moment that he ignored any feeling, any common sense and any protective instinct to hurl a P.E.P.S. blast with his left hand directly against Selene's belly, the end of his limb that gave way to the two carbon sides and the vaguely triangular empty space in the robotic forearm.

The girl was thrown into the air in a disjointed parable, landing on the floor first with her head and shoulders and then feeling her back and legs doing the same. She carried her hands to her belly, her black shirt burned in a couple of places and the skin underneath reddened and sore in a much more intense way.

She had absolutely no idea that Jensen possessed such a graft, she had no idea how much his body had been transformed. It was both a surprise and a terrible condemnation, the obvious certainty that the man could have beaten her without any problem, if only he had really wanted to.

He was prepared and lucid, able to draw on a firm composure that she lacked, always driven in the fight by fierce impulsiveness. Selene was strong and lethal, but Jensen was prepared, incredibly prepared, and against her simple preparation and an innate fighting attitude could be the keystone for the ex-SWAT.

Adam sprang again, leaving a trail of golden discharges behind him, giving the young girl just enough time to get up with a somersault to getaway. He carried out a series of attacks that the young lady dodged by moving backward.

They attempted on several occasions to hurl each other, in vain attempt to lead mutually to the ground, _ready_ to surrender, to give in, to let themselves be overwhelmed again. They were so willing to hit at each other that they forgot why they had dared to hesitate for so long before getting rid of their reciprocal need.

Although they were in a sort of physical equality, it was Adam who was advancing incessantly towards her, pushing her backward continuously from foot to foot until she hit the wall of a supporting column with her shoulders. He loaded his fist to hit her face, but the girl suddenly lowered herself, _feeling_ the carbon end disintegrate concrete and rusty steel supports above her head.

It was absurdly devastating to realize how dangerous Jensen could be. It was something that gave Selene a rush of pure adrenaline, so powerful and engulfing as to let her react with more fury than necessary.

She sprang by hitting him with a headbutt, causing him to stagger for a moment and then forcing him with a low kick to distance his artificial legs further apart, to make the agent's weight easier to lift, unstable in his balance and much more imposing than she was. She grabbed him by the abdomen, hoisting him for more than one foot and then pushing him against the floor, making him bump his back on it.

Adam hadn't been able to stop her, Selene was much faster than him and could use her movement skills to her full advantage. The pain in his shoulders rekindled some alarm messages in the HUD, distracting him just enough to not immediately perceive what was about to happen.

They had _landed_ in an area of the room rotting enough to break through with their weight and with the force of the attack the layer of tiles and structural reinforcements, falling into the lower floor in a jumble of dust, debris, surprised and painful verses.

Adam felt Selene's body above his, her head just below his neck. The dark shields protected him from the dust, allowing him to see a large portion of the ceiling hanging dangerously a few feet away. He was overwhelmed by a terrible certainty, a feeling of lucid fear that drove him to act quickly and spontaneously.

He barely had time to reverse their positions with a powerful kidney stroke, his left hand under the nape of the girl and his right arm raised over the shoulder to hold the big boulder with that single limb. Or at least, that was what he had expected to do, because when he did not feel the weight of that part of the ceiling on him at all and instead saw Selene's fingers rise beyond his vision, it was like perceiving time dilating and stopping.

Jensen stared for a few moments at the young woman, finding her blue eyes on him, her lips barely open in slow breathing, the skin on her face dirty with dust and shining with sweat, that single trickle of blood on her forehead that had left only a faint reddish trace. He slowly lowered his raised arm, resting his carbon hand on her belly covered by the ruined shirt, the sensors that sent an infinite number of initially _incomplete_ answers into his mind, and finally tilted his head just to look over his shoulder.

Selene moved her left arm in a distant direction to make the big piece of concrete and steel fall far away, without stopping for a single moment to look at the agent's face, watching him turn around again to respond to her glance.

She had used her powers to _protect_ him and herself, and allowed Jensen to realize this without hesitation.

The young woman's palm collapsed next to her head as she felt in her hair the robotic fingers, the purple braid now to be remade. When she lifted the same arm to reach Adam's right cheekbone, she touched the black _comma_ beyond the outer corner of the eye protected by the shield, just as the other one was, symmetrically.

«Let me see...», she said, the hoarse voice because of everything they'd done.

The ex-SWAT jerked slightly as he felt her fingertips hot on his cheek, listening to her request expressed in such an _agonizing_ tone.

He had no idea how he would hide the sensations of feeling his abdomen pressed against the young girl's hip, how he would avoid lingering in the heat of Selene's head against his artificial palm, or how _terribly painful_ it was to be able to observe her from that position, while she _lay_ almost underneath him, the other end in carbon still clutching her _hot_ hip.

Yet he didn't hesitate a moment longer before deactivating his shields and allowing her to peer into his _alien_ eyes.

He saw her smile, that typical smile of someone who found in other people's gestures an intimate relief, the genuine beauty of knowing how to satisfy a tender and kind request with the same care, with the same sweetness with which the girl was touching him at that moment. The delicate, feminine fingers descended calmly on his cheek, on the marks on the edge of his beard, and then flowed from top to bottom on part of the man's lips, making him barely open his mouth in a short, silent, warm and pleasant sigh on Selene's _natural_ fingertips.

He saw her smile again, more openly, staring at him as if the agent was suddenly the best thing that could have happened to her in that instant. And Adam found himself lingering in that very certainty, the awareness that he too could find nothing more regenerating, nothing quieter, nothing that had the same power to calm him, to guide him. For the first time in years, he felt he was immensely right in his own body.

But it was equally _terrifying_ for both of them to realize that they were reacting to each other as if they were persevering in incomplete sensations, in insincere sensations. As if they had just finished making love without remembering anything about why they were reduced to that condition, without remembering the pleasure, the heat, the sweat and the sex. Without feeling any magnificent and powerful emotion they should have remembered after something so vivid and intense.

They felt, in a mirror-like way, in a small part of them, the saddest and loneliest part, the hint of _emptiness_ , as distant as two abstract entities that had nothing left to share, precisely because it was already all over.

It hurt Adam more to feel swallowed up by that sense of incompleteness, an agony he had felt for months and months when he had been augmented, learning over time to replace it with something else, _needy_ to replace it with something else.

He had thrown himself into a furious and exhausting _hunt_ and had ended up several times by being consumed by it, that dragging sense of guilt from which he had felt afflicted and which so many people had deliberately exploited — but he had _allowed_ himself to be exploited, aware that he had to take responsibility.

Selene waited for the heart in her chest to beat slowly again, not in a calmness from which she hoped to feel revitalized, but allowing all the pain and sadness she had experienced over the years to reclaim the tribute she was still trying to face and overcome — negative emotions awakened by alcohol and the words of her uncle.

It was ironic to note how much more prone she was to experience a sad hangover than Vaclav and his much more recent bereavement. Ironic and depressing.

She knew well enough to come out of that metaphorical inner struggle as a winner, most of the time, but she knew herself enough to understand when any sense of positivity and well-being seemed to vanish with disarming cruelty, throwing her into a torment that had never left her after all and with which she had to live every day, in the desire to erase it sometimes in the wrong way — her uncle was trying to protect her from _that_.

Adam shook his head slightly, grabbing the girl's wrist with the hand he had previously placed on her hip. Her fingers were _held_ close to his goatee, the burning desire to be touched again that made him not move the young woman's palm completely.

She then lifted her other hand, barely caught initially between the floor and the man's body, to touch Jensen's shoulder, finally leading it a little higher. She sensed under her thumb something different that she could not immediately identify between the collarbone and neck, the sensation of a slightly less soft texture beyond the sleeveless knit fabric. It must have been some section of his grafts, something artificial in that part of his body cleverly hidden by his clothing.

She didn't really have time to investigate further because Adam abandoned the position he had been in and slipped on his back beside her in a deep, unsure, almost trembling sigh, his hand under the nape of her neck applying light pressure to ask her to move — that purple-dyed hair that fascinated him unexpectedly.

When Jensen saw the young woman turning on her side towards him, resting her head on the portion of his body that he knew was alternating between flesh and machine, he was unable to prevent Selene from having such easy access to physical contact that both of them did not imagine they wanted so much.

She had almost clothed herself against his side, in a vague fetal position while pressing part of her face onto the rib area, near the junction sections of the artificial arm. She was looking for his warmth, perhaps even his scent.

Adam was overwhelmed by the demonstration of such desperate need.

They remained there for several minutes, silent and motionless, unable to find the courage to get up and leave, unable to part permanently on paths shrouded in _fog and loneliness_.

Selene realized she could hear Adam's heartbeat, clutching at him to listen to it better: a strong and continuous sound that made all the accumulated tiredness collapse on her, causing her slight drowsiness.

Jensen would have wanted _not_ to perceive the familiarity of that gesture, the way the young woman's body relaxed against his, the way he recognized and remembered how beautiful it was to feel female forms pressed against his side.

The augmented hand moved off the floor in search of a lock of purple hair to play with distractedly, wrapping it around his mechanical fingertip — determined to ignore the frustration of not being able to experience the tickle between his fingers instead.

He squinted his _alien_ eyes at the violence with which his mind screamed at him how wrong it was to be there, that voice he hated and despised exclusively at that moment. It reminded him of all their differences, insurmountable and unjust — from their age, she twenty-two and he thirty-six.

The way they had both been thrown to the cruelties of the world had brought them closer and continued to approach them painfully, collimating in the fight they had abandoned themselves to just before. It was a response dictated solely by the desire to find in the battle the security of blood and sweat, all they were so accustomed to.

Contrary to what they commonly should have felt and experienced, there were only uncertainties and doubts, for them, in the utopia of normal existence.

Jensen sighed deeply, bending his head to look at the young woman's, while she felt his movement and sinking her face more into the hollow between his arm and chest; he felt her testing with the back of her neck the section of his arm made of silicone parts, a pure emulative trace of muscles and flesh to be softer and more familiar.

Although that action _screamed_ the request from her to remain still in that perfect state of grace, it was Selene herself who gave voice to an obvious need.

«We gotta go.»

The tone vibrated differently at a junction between graft and flesh, causing a slight tickle in the man — the silly idea that he would finally see fulfilled that _naive_ desire he had wanted to feel before on the fingers of the mechanical hand.

«Only when you are ready, Selene», Adam reassured her in a much lower tone, almost afraid of _breaking_ the bliss of that moment with words that did not really need to be spoken.

The girl barely smiled, a slight amused puff that gave a thrill to the man for yet another tickling heat. «I don't think I'm really ready. I don't think I've ever been. I don't think I want to be now, when _here_ I feel... so good.»

Adam swallowed, unprepared for that statement, surprised by the naturalness with which the young lady was letting herself be discovered, a sweetness that he _hoped_ he would not find in her.

It was so easy to forget how metaphorically distant Selene was, in a _place_ that the man did not feel empowered to reach.

«Don't say things we'll both regret», he replied.

Jensen was extremely aware of how much she, too, had felt and experienced the same feelings as a few minutes earlier, and could not imagine any _positive_ conclusion about it.

The girl giggled again, shaking her face a little, rubbing it between the black shirt and a portion of the cybernetic arm. «Like what my uncle said...»

Adam exhaled a little louder, taking his hand from the purple hair to Selene's shoulder in a pure gesture of support: being sure that she was still saddened by the unhappy exchange with McTavish gave him that extra push not to really leave her alone.

«Artair didn't mean to hurt you, you know.»

She nodded firmly, squeezing her eyes and pressing one hand against her mouth, in a determined attempt to swallow the first hiccup of a cry she had tried to _massacre_ with all her might.

The agent perceived the slight change in the young woman's body temperature, having only at first doubt as to why there was that precise physical response, but when he heard her swallow a couple of times, he began to feel a little more _reckless_ — and hatefully useless.

«The death of my parents», the girl began with an uncertain voice, «is branded in my memory, the marks of a _red-hot iron_ everywhere you can see my scars», she continued, letting go shortly afterward at a short pause. «When those mercenaries found us, they didn't kill my parents right away.»

Adam squeezed his eyelids, perfectly aware of what he was about to hear: all those details she had kept silent, that agony she had hidden, all the pain Selene had felt and was still feeling.

A part of himself had almost waited for that moment as if he had foreseen it from the beginning, and was ready to endure it, but a small part of him was distressed by it; he was certainly not strong enough to confront Selene's demons seriously.

_Please, I don't want to know. Please, I don't want to know..._

«They surrounded us in the main room of the shelter, kicking and punching my father while they held me and my mother still. Once my dad couldn't move, they tried to... To undress my mother.»

The ex-SWAT fixed his eyes on the gap above them, shaking his head and pressing the back of his neck on the floor, in the hope of feeling more intensely that weak twinge against his head and not the bitter disgust he felt in his mouth.

_Stop. Don't go any further... Please don't..._

«But to defend the woman he loved, my father stood up and tried to lash out at one of them. He was shot in the chest at that moment.»

Selene had to wait for her breath to stop shaking before she could continue, weakly biting the back of the hand she had pressed against her lips to control her destructive desire to explode into a decomposed wailing.

«My father's eyes were already out when I saw him crumble to the ground. I could no longer _feel_ him, it was with him that I shared the gift of my powers: we were able to transmit sensations and emotions even at long distances, but suddenly, at that precise moment, the _bridge_ connecting us dissolved like an illusion.»

_Stop. Please... Please..._

«It was at that moment that something inside me broke inexorably. I wasn't fast enough to react, I wasn't strong enough... When those men stopped my mother, holding a gun to her head, they warned me not to take the same action as my father.»

Another silence forced them to make an effort not to collapse at that very moment. Adam closed his eyes and Selene instead kept them slightly grainy, the black shirt of the man that allowed her to focus with extreme attention on her memories.

«I don't know exactly why they changed their minds, maybe it was because of the way my mother challenged them with her gaze, with that impossible self-control she had. They found the perfect solution to symbolically _massacre_ her... Something that would have devastated her more than the death of the man she loved.»

_Stop, stop, stop..._

«When my mother realized that I had become the target, the mean by which they would take revenge on the comrades Damian had killed days before, they shot her in the leg to immobilizing her... To make her harmless.»

Adam squeezed his arm tighter around the girl's shoulder, a feeling of nausea licking his insides, a terrible desire to free his stomach from the boulder that was getting bigger and bigger, and once again the agonizing awareness that he couldn't do anything about it — the latent guilt that fed like a leech, because he wasn't able to help the _tender_ girl who was clutching onto him in search of a relief that was too hard to find.

«They raped me.»

Those single words made Selene collapse a little more and gave Adam the same agonizing destruction, a void so dense and engulfing that he had already foreseen it before time, already tasted it.

There had been _something_ that had left a faint trace in Jensen, a sort of hallmark in the girl that he had tried to ignore, but which he had in fact already guessed: that small part of himself, weak and frightened as he would never admit, seemed to know Selene's story, and for that very reason, Adam was deeply devastated — helpless spectator and somehow guilty of the evil that had been done to her.

«They raped me, Adam. All nine of them. In front of my mother's eyes», said Selene with disarming slowness. «When I realized that the more I screamed, the more she suffered, I stopped _feeling_ , I stopped fighting, I turned off everything inside of me, believing I was doing the right thing. It was probably my silence that gave her the strength to get up on her elbows and knees despite the physical pain in her leg. But when they saw her move towards a rifle left too close to her reach, they shot her in the head.»

_I'm begging you... I'm begging you... I'm begging you..._

«When they were done, they opened my belly with a hunting knife just above the groin, one last gash inflicted on my belly... Another scar on the body of a thirteen-year-old _child_... Though I was already bleeding profusely _elsewhere_...»

Adam didn't hold that outburst any longer — his own thoughts.

He turned on his side to hold Selene in a safe, calm embrace, the bland attempt to give her peace, quiet, the certainty that he could not fulfill that intention at all because it was materially impossible to give her the _paradise_ she deserved without any doubt.

Several minutes went by without saying anything else, while the girl couldn't stop shaking and breathed a little louder, pressing her mouth against the chest of the ex-SWAT.

It was a desperate yet contained gesture, so dragging that Jensen was forced to wonder how much longer he would really maintain that stoic control.

«When Artair and Damian found me, a day later, my body had already started to heal. Not as quickly as I am now if I get hurt, but I managed to survive even though those mercenaries left me for dead.»

Another pause allowed her to lift her face slightly, in need of breathing a little deeper, her breath caressing the agent's neck.

«I haven't been able to talk for months, Adam. I couldn't cry», and it seemed enough to admit that truth to hear her sobbing like a child. «I couldn't even shed a single tear when we buried my parents, I couldn't show anything I was feeling. It was like I was keeping myself _turn off_ to protect my mom and dad in my mind.»

Jensen inhaled for a long time, was able to perceive every single movement of the young woman in his arms, vaguely sensing that faint scent of cinnamon in her hair reduced to a disaster and a faint trace of jasmine on everything else.

Dust and sweat initially hid any hint of Selene's natural perfume, but being near her in that way was giving him access to _whatever_ she was hiding.

For the first time in years, the man felt the need not to deny himself that kind of closeness, not to satisfy some personal desire, not to seek relief from all that he had experienced.

Adam was only there for Selene.

«But one day Damian took me to the London Aquarium... Have you ever been there?», she asked, trying to focus on something else so as not to be overwhelmed by her emotions again.

The man bent his face towards the young girl, wrapping his other arm better around her shoulders and looking into her blue eyes to find an expression he wouldn't want to see.

Selene showed the face of one who tried with all her might not to give in to crying, even though it was no longer easy for her to control her voice and breath.

«No, never», he said.

«Oh, it was good to be there», Selene added, letting go with a faint smile, a soft movement of the lips that didn't reach her gaze. «With time I could no longer appreciate zoos or aquariums, they reminded me of the years at Horus Field, but at that moment, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.»

Her tone of voice managed to be tender and childlike for those few moments, a faint bliss that the girl was only able to find through memories.

«I wandered the halls and corridors followed by Damian, moving silently like a ghost. I didn't follow the directions of the tour guides, I simply moved without a destination. It was also thanks to Damian, he asked the few people approaching to let us take a private tour.»

Jensen saw Selene bowing her face again, resting her forehead directly against his neck, letting the man's chin press into her purple hair, his beard too softly caught between some locks.

«I don't know exactly what path I had established in my thoughts at that time, but I remember suddenly finding myself in a small room far from the rest of the customers. There were a lot of small tanks with one or two fish per display case. I remember stopping in front of the one that housed a couple of seahorses.»

For Jensen was almost instinctual to slide with the arm in a slow gesture towards the girl's face, sliding with the back of the index finger on the line of the young lady's left cheekbone, the confidence that he could somehow perceive the black ink lines on the artificial sensors.

«I started to look more closely at the lighter color one, it moved differently from the other fish and was clinging with its tail to some decorative structure of the aquarium. I remember... I remember thinking that it was sick because it started to... To have spasms so evident and strong that at that moment I felt something different, something very similar to a legitimate concern for an animal that I thought was injured or sick. It was contractions: it was the male seahorse who was about to give birth.»

Selene took a long breath, her body stiffened as soon as she realized that she could not hold back any longer. She moved a little away from the agent, loosening the embrace in which he had so spontaneously wrapped her; she poked her hands out to sit down, turning slightly to an inaccurate spot on her left to turn her back to the ex-SWAT.

When she felt the tears flowing down her cheeks, she bent her head up to her chest, bending it a little further away as soon as she felt the man sitting next to her, seeing him out of the corner of her eye getting closer. She placed her hand on his chest to warn him not to move any further.

She didn't want to be looked at.

«Seeing that miracle of nature rekindled something inside me, gave me back access to all the emotions I had kept silent for months. I never cried as much as I did then, while Damian listened to me sobbing without restraint, just staying close.»

She moved her hand sideways from the agent's chest towards the carbon arm, looking for his mechanical fingers, while with the other palm she touched her left cheekbone, feeling the calloused mark under the fingertips and _perceiving_ in a bizarre way the presence of the tattoo.

«That's why above the scar that Damian gave me I wanted the drawing of a seahorse: it was my way to thank him for giving me the gift of emotions and feelings that I had risked losing forever, because he was the man who allowed me to come back to life again.»

Selene sighed slowly, quickly drying her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt. She lifted her face and took another long breath before turning to look at Jensen, finding his _alien_ eyes still exposed, the remains of dust and sweat in places where both could be found.

«You still haven't seen your seahorse, have you, Adam? Is that why you have that look?»

The man stiffened for a moment, feeling the girl's fingers tighten slightly around his own, intertwining them shortly afterward in a gesture that had too affectionate connotations.

«What look?», he asked her, though intimately sure of what she had noticed in turn.

Selene could not hide the tremor in her voice and on her lips, her eyebrows of her natural color just curved downwards and her blue eyes that were once again unable to bring back any more tears.

«The gaze of one who has decided to extinguish himself.»

Jensen did not need to ignore how true and dramatically powerful those words were. He remained silent for a moment, observing the young woman for the same time. He wondered how it was possible to want to admire so greedily a person who, despite what had happened to her, seemed naturally predisposed to empathy, kindness, and gentleness.

«Maybe I'm waiting for someone to take me to an aquarium, Selene.»

The girl smiled barely, her free hand passing quickly over the skin of her face to wipe away the remains of the crying that had overwhelmed her.

«Then let's stay here for a few more hours, Adam», proposed the young lady in that tone finally a little less tormented. «Perhaps I can show you what a miracle awaits you if you give me this chance.»

Jensen realized that he wanted to give her a very specific answer, a sentence that he eventually chose to silence her out of simple _desperation_. He felt a kind of agonizing stillness as he remained with her, totally unprepared for such intimate reactions. He had no control over them.

He might not have answered Selene, but in his mind, everything had already taken on obvious connotations.

_Oh, little girl. The truth is, I'm finding out at my own expense that I want to give you everything you want._

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

[ _Dark Paradise_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvSZQ4oMHGM)

When BlueDevil's niece squeezed herself in the shoulders, sitting on the dirty floor with her legs crossed in front of her and her hands pressed against her thighs covered in jeans, Adam gave her a long, silent look at the effects of goosebumps on the visible portion of her neck.

The black shirt she was wearing had some holes on the sleeves and was burnt here and there on the abdomen, allowing him to see a few inches of her skin sometimes decorated with ink. His dark shirt with its slightly high collar wasn't much better, too, but at least Jensen couldn't feel cold.

Adam was sitting opposite her with one leg outstretched and one bent over the knee against the belly, one mechanical arm over the side supporting his weight resting on the palm and the other hand left lazily on the raised thigh, his augmented eyes still uncovered.

They had stayed talking for almost another two hours, while Selene told how the years with Damian and Artair had been a relief for her psyche.

«Life with two men has led me to learn the most common things, like cooking or operating a washing machine. My uncle was quite good at household chores, but it was Damian who had rather questionable eating habits, and it happened quite often that he tried to make himself useful in that moments too, as he continued to train and educate me at my request.»

She slipped a little laugh, as she carried the unmade braid over her shoulder and began to untie it with calm, nonchalant movements that attracted all the attention of the ex-SWAT.

He was almost eager to replace his carbon hands with the young woman's in that peaceful and relaxing gesture.

«Artair was a stranger _in the house_ to me for a long time, the more I grew up the more I began to look like his sister. I started dyeing my hair when I was seventeen to try not to show him much of the resemblance: my natural color is dark brown, similar to the color of dark chocolate. It was the same color as my mother's hair, but I inherited my father's eyes.»

Jensen bent his face slightly, observing a scaling on the floor for a few moments before returning to stare at the young woman's face.

That tender and spontaneous chatter was driving him to feel a little more relaxed, sure that it was she who was driving him away from what she had told him before so as not to upset him further with her story.

Why did that _little girl_ want to be so good to him?

«I would have liked to have met your parents», Adam admitted a bit of an impulse.

Selene raised an eyebrow, smiling. «I can show them to you if you want, though I'm afraid my memories are no longer so true to the originals. As I told you the other day, I no longer have any memory of the tone of their voice and since I have no photographs of them, I have probably forgotten many details of their appearance.»

The man barely stiffened, tilting his face; the feminine tone rippled with shades of nostalgia struck him again with its tenderness.

«Let me see them? How?», Jensen asked, sincerely intrigued.

The girl hesitated for a moment, moving her right hand in a nod, extending it slightly with the palm upwards, leaving it on her knee.

«You can imagine how, Adam.»

The agent collected himself, clearing his throat with a firm verse, accompanying his words with a nod of denial.

«Oh... I'd rather not.»

She smiled again, subtly amused by Adam's reaction, in a _provocative_ reflection that made her even more cheerful. Big and strong, and he seemed to be uncomfortable even at the mere prospect of having to deal with those much less physical abilities of hers.

«I know, and I don't mean to force you», she confirmed.

The agent saw the female fingers return to the braid, watching her silently for a few more seconds as the girl lifted her arms to unravel the strands gathered on her head. He took one look at the collapsed portion of the ceiling, about thirteen feet away from them, and shook her head again.

«It's amazing enough that you... That you do what you can do without the help of some augmentation», he commented.

The hacker's niece just smiled and took one look at him. «I'm aware of that, but at least you're not looking at me like I'm a freak.»

Jensen sneered in turn, raising his face slightly in a relaxed gesture. «I really am the last person who could afford to look at you as if you were any different, Selene.»

The young woman smiled at him again, nodding. «Oh, well... That's a relief, because I like the way you look at me, Adam.»

The ex-SWAT remained silent for a few moments too long, realizing late how much that comment activated alarm bells in his mind. He turned his face away again, ignoring the vague feeling of uncertainty in his stomach.

Selene tilted her head a little to try to observe him again, her hair finally free on her shoulders to warm her neck, a cascade of bright purple that, in a pure reflexive momentum, led the man to find that it was wonderfully good for her.

«What color were your eyes before the augs?», she asked in a curious voice.

Jensen gave her a quick look, sighing. «Blue, tending to gray. A shade much lighter than yours.»

He still remembered what his _natural_ eyes looked like. If he compared them to Selene's, much warmer and softer, he remembered well how glacial and cold they had been in their way. Only his face and expressions had been able to soften that icy color. Paradoxically, though _alien_ , his retinal implants had made him much less _distant_.

The girl squeezed herself again in her shoulders, nodding for a moment to ponder the answer she had just received and finally bringing her hands against her belly in a childishly swaying movement, as if she were talking about an extremely pleasant subject.

«Tattoos?», she simply asked in a relaxed tone.

Adam hesitated for a moment, the doubtful expression, although he couldn't help but raise a corner of his lips in a hinted smile.

«No one, although before the grafts I had an optical sight symbol on my right arm, just below my shoulder. It was a tattoo that _formalized_ my entry into SWAT in 2018. Now we could only consider the symbol I have here», he concluded by pointing to the hexagonal sign and the _TECH1_ on his forehead.

The idea that the man had had a tattoo at the time, left Selene intimately excited, as if she could find in that _similarity_ something that they had in common.

«Piercing?», she went on, standing on her back in an overtly interested attitude.

Jensen escaped a spontaneous laugh, immediately recovering the usual frown so as not to appear in turn intrigued by the chat, although it was quite obvious the opposite.

«Before or after the augs?». The girl gave him an amused look, bending her face waiting for an answer. «No, no piercing», he finally said, the tone falsely exasperated.

The young woman nodded quickly, waiting a few moments before continuing and taking extreme care to study the other's face.

«Engaged? Married? Children?»

«Hey», the man said, _warning_ her both verbally and physically about that excessive curiosity.

BlueDevil's niece raised her hands in a nod of peace, giggling and shaking her shoulders cheekily.

«What? It's to get to know each other better. You allow me to face you and kick your ass», and at those words, the agent showed a look of reproach, especially since he had _defended_ himself so well, «but won't you allow me to ask you some personal questions?»

Adam hesitated again for a few seconds, finally rolling his eyes in an exasperated nod. «No.»

«No, what?», Selene gloated, biting her lower lip in an amused gesture, swaying her shoulders again with a playful attitude.

«No, I'm not engaged or married, and I have no children.»

His expression became slightly more uncertain, his mind lingering for a moment on the vivid and burning memory of when he had considered starting a family with a _certain_ woman from his past.

 _Because_ she _'s part of my past now._

«It would be quite unlikely, given my situation...», Adam reflected, more to himself.

The girl burst out laughing, surprised by that comment. «You're the same age as my uncle, after all. He's not married or engaged either. And he has no children. Not that I know of, at least. He may have spilled some of his genes over the years, but...»

Jensen slightly widened his eyes at the prospect of imagining McTavish devoted to a somewhat libertine life, although he preferred not to linger on that eventuality any longer.

«I think I'm a few years younger than Artair», the ex-SWAT specified in a serious tone.

Selene held her lips in a restrained smile, her blue eyes showing all the hilarity derived from those last words. Adam stared at her, perplexed.

«What's so funny?», he asked her with a subtly sharp expression, sure it was yet another cheeky attitude of the young lady.

Not that he meant to complain about it. He had almost hoped that Selene would tease him again, especially given the sad interlude she had shared with him a couple of hours earlier.

The girl shook her face, unable to hide anymore the laughter that blossomed in her chest. «You pointed out that you're younger than my uncle, who, for the record, is forty-one. It's kind of funny, and it makes me think... What is it? Are you worried about old age?»

«Hey», he scolded her again, bowing his face in her direction in a nod. «I'm not old.»

«Are you sure?», she added, moving one hand on the floor to move a little, prying her palm while her other fingers pointed to the man's beard. «Are those white hairs? I think it's in your hair, too.»

Adam chased away the proximity of the young woman with his arm held on his knee, a gesture to which he wanted to give a semblance of severity, but which instead turned out to be more amused than expected.

«What a bitch...», he openly apostrophized her, sure he didn't offend her in any way.

Selene smiled again, bringing her arms back to her belly to rub them lightly, swaying her buttocks as she glanced over, finding the gap from which they had fallen a couple of hours earlier.

«Are you cold?», asked the man, looking at her.

Selene first responded with a gesture of carelessness, clutching her shoulders, tilting her face to one side in a tender gesture. «I admit I'm a little tired, but I'm not cold at all. More or less.»

Jensen shook his head slightly, taking a short breath before moving to get up. He could very easily guess why she was trying not to really answer that question, yet another clear intention not to give him any possible thoughts to worry about.

«Let's go get the rest of our clothes», he continued, handing her a carbon palm in a pure knightly élan.

Selene raised an eyebrow, amused, well aware of how easily she found that phrase misunderstood. She was almost ready to accept the gesture of help, but Jensen puffed for that glance, moving a few steps away. She could not help but burst out laughing, getting up without any difficulty.

«Sense of humor, I'm not afraid of you», she provoked him.

Adam rolled his gaze without being seen, continuing to keep his eyes exposed and letting a corner of his lips rise in response to that comment. When he moved to leave the room, the hacker's niece stared in curiosity at him.

«Where are you going?», she asked him.

«I'm looking for the stairs», was his pragmatic and ready answer.

Selene snickered for a moment, positioning herself better under the gap to jump directly to the upper floor. The agent stood still for a few moments, finally shaking his head.

«Exhibitionist...», he commented with a sneer.

Following the example of the young woman, he too reached that level of the palace with a leap, finding the girl at about thirty-one feet while holding her sweatshirt in her hands, shaking it weakly to free it from possible dust. He moved up to his coat, performing the same action and wearing it shortly afterward.

He turned to look at Selene while she, giving him her shoulders, tied her hair in a high ponytail, the sweatshirt held tightly between her thighs while she picked up the long purple hair thanks to a black elastic band.

When he saw her grab the bottom edge of the shirt to slip it off in a quick gesture, the female back decorated with a large tattoo of a scorpion and the black cotton bra strap just below her shoulder blades, Adam couldn't help but feel his cheeks and throat flaring up imperceptibly. He barely had a moment of mental impasse, surprised and upset, before reacting to what he was watching.

«Fuck, what the hell are you doing?», he blurted out, looking away in shame.

Selene glanced over her shoulder, throwing the jersey on the ground and starting to wear the sweatshirt as she turned towards the agent.

«It's nothing you haven't seen before, Jensen.»

Calling him by his last name was a way of teasing him a little more, just like openly alluding to having seen her naked the night before.

«The shirt is dirty, full of dust and holes. By the way, that _trick_ was pretty interesting and incredible. You got a lot of tricks up your sleeve, huh? Or should I say in your arms?»

The man twirled his gaze again, surprised by that comment and by the lightness with which she had let herself be observed, glancing at her while the hacker's niece held the front of the sweatshirt slightly raised; he saw her carrying a tiny hand to her bare belly to press distractedly with curiosity.

On the whole abdomen, starting from the navel, she had a large tattoo depicting an Ægishjalmur, the Icelandic rune of protection; on the right side, it was possible to notice the design of the scorpion sting, as an extension of the representation on the back, while on the left side there was a written text. The words in black ink were perfectly visible despite the distance at which he was standing, but not understandable, letting him sense that it was a foreign language — probably Gaelic.

«Maybe you don't notice much by the tattoos, but I think I have a few bruises», she provoked him again, a little smile on her lips.

«If you're looking for an apology from me, you're gonna be very disappointed.»

The man's tone was quite serious, although he could not hide from himself how subtly he felt guilty for having done her, without a doubt, any _harm_.

 _Shit_ , he had shot a P.E.P.S blast against her at a distance of about four inches: they were both lucky he didn't cause her some internal bleeding. That still meant that the girl's strength was a lot higher than he imagined. She had been able to stand up to him and knock him down after several hits, she had been able to lift him on several occasions and had prevented a large boulder from collapsing on them with her powers.

What else could that _little girl_ do?

Selene brought the sweatshirt back to the right position, a lip corner raised in a less provocative smile.

Her body had completely recovered from fighting with the man and had no bruises, but she found profoundly amusing to try to scratch Adam's composure, especially after succumbing to the need to let off steam and get rid of a part of her past that she had suddenly struggled to keep under control.

The sentence that Artair had addressed to her had, in fact, ignited a stupid frustration, because she had felt really annoyed by the presence of her uncle and the agent in a moment of pure fun, but it had undoubtedly been better to let go of that sudden anger and sadness exactly in the way experienced with the ex-SWAT.

She took the jacket off the ground, shaking it a little and then put it on calmly, lifting the zipper with a relaxed movement and releasing the hair over the collar with some difficulty.

«Ouch... They're getting too long. I should cut them. Maybe even change the color. You think turquoise might be a good alternative?»

«I'll give it a try on me and tell you», Jensen replied, crossing his arms to his chest with a hint of impatience.

Selene burst out laughing so loudly that she had to stop any action, bending over her knees and carrying a hand to her diaphragm.

«You've just given me the gift of an image that I'll struggle to remove from my mind, and I can't tell if it's beautiful or not. Maybe in your case, it's automatically beautiful.»

Adam raised an eyebrow, tilting his face. «Don't be a pander. You practically called me old a few minutes ago.»

The young woman moved to reach him, as he was closer to the exit of the large room. She stood beside him for a few moments, giving him a playful look.

«And whoever said that if you're _old_ », and at that word her fingers moved to the side of her head to metaphorically indicate high quotes, to make it clear how in truth she was simply joking about the topic, «can't you be handsome too? Older men _definitely_ have their charms.»

At the word "definitely", Selene took the trouble to take a look at the body of the man — even if covered by the coat — running quickly from top to bottom and going up again on the male face with an expression that Jensen identified perfectly mixed between playfulness and sincerity.

Adam took a subtly exasperated look at her, intent on answering her seriously; instead, he heard the words sticking in his throat, eventually opting for a spacey grunt as she gave him one last mischievous smile before going out into the corridor. He found her waiting for him near the stairs, beckoning him to follow her just before he saw her go up the steps.

«Hey, where are you going?», he asked, taking a few steps in her direction.

Selene only turned around when she reached the landing halfway between floors, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets, taking out her vu-phone to check the time.

«It's almost dawn, I wanted to watch it from the roof.» She paused, smiling. «Maybe your _seahorse_ is waiting for you there, but you're free to go.»

Jensen had only a moment of perplexity when he heard that last part of the answer, linking it only later to what she had told him. Suddenly the thought that the young woman had confided so much in him, going into details that had brought her back with her memory to those traumatic events, fell on his conscience like a boulder.

He could watch the girl smile at him quietly and relaxed, he could remember with extreme care every sentence, joke and comment — cheerful or allusive — that she had addressed to him, and he could not imagine how terrible it would be to see her _different_. Suffering, aching, sad, branded by that violence that had taken away first her parents and then the innocence typical of children.

_Because at thirteen you are still a child, and she faced something so devastating and destructive all by herself._

He couldn't, indeed, he didn't _want_ to imagine her wounded and abandoned, in a room where there were the bodies of her mother and father: the _hell_ she must have experienced before the arrival of her uncle and her instructor was hidden somewhere inside her. There was no escaping such pain.

Adam reached her at a slow pace, climbing the steps as he looked at her and gradually finding himself confronted with her blue gaze, surpassing her in height abundantly as soon as he was in front of her.

«I'm not leaving you alone.»

The agent recorded a peak in Selene's heartbeat, impossible to ignore despite the social enhancer being in rest mode. The smile she showed him afterward indicated how relaxed and spontaneous she was in taking his hand to guide him to the rest of the stairs.

The gentle grip of her fingers together with the request to move with her left him deeply unsure, because it had been too, _too_ , long since he had walked hand in hand with anyone, even though the sensors on his robotic end gave him so few sensations to linger on.

Selene barely had a moment's hesitation feeling the man's grasp light and hesitant, as if he was not really prepared to stay so close and get _carried away_.

She took another look at him as soon as they reached the next landing and understood from his _alien_ gaze that it was her naturalness that had left him surprised. It was at that point that she squeezed his fingers tighter after a quick smile and took up the pace with greater determination.

When they reached the top floor, they found the door to the outside locked with chain and padlock. Adam moved to open it as he had done with the entrance gate, but Selene anticipated him by breaking the obstacle in the same way, pulling it towards her with her free hand.

Once the door was opened with a rusty squeak, the first thing they noticed was the rain; compared to a couple of hours before it was stronger and more continuous, but the sky was already lightened to the east, giving the surrounding environment a soft, almost silvery patina.

The girl puffed weakly, standing there undercover, not coming out.

«Damn, I didn't think about the clouds.» She turned to look at the agent, a legitimate doubt that crossed her mind. «You'll have to go to the office in a few hours, won't you?»

Adam barely sneered, shaking his head. «Are you worried now that you made me pull an all-nighter?»

Selene giggled, denying it with her head. «No worries. You're big and strong, you don't need the nanny.»

She moved a few steps forward, loosening the grip of their hands to move towards the roof, hit by rain with an efficient forecast.

«And then, for the right reasons», continued Selene in a mischievous tone, «whoever chooses not to go to sleep if they have better things to do.»

The tone and the feminine gaze did the rest, giving the ex-SWAT a way to sigh and cross his arms to his chest for that nth veiled allusion.

«Making sure a little girl doesn't get into trouble isn't a good enough reason, but I chose to. I am aware of that.»

The young woman barely bit her lower lip, smiling at him in an amused nod and slightly arching an eyebrow. She let slip a short, low giggle, a distinct throat sound that gave her attitude an even more crafty appearance.

«Depends on what kind of trouble you want to save me, Adam. I may even like some of them if we get into trouble together.»

The man swallowed imperceptibly, clearing his voice as he watched Artair's niece raise her face to let the water slip on her face and dampen her hair.

Did that _little girl_ really set out to tease him so brazenly?

«Are you still drunk or did I hit you too hard?»

Selene burst out laughing, starting to turn on herself rather slowly as she moved one foot behind the other and kicking some small puddle formed on the floor of the roof.

«Won't you join me?», she continued. «Afraid you'll get wet?»

Jensen tilted his face, the urge to let slip an unthinking exclamation that would give the young woman a good _advantage_ over that exchange of jokes: even though the whole thing seemed _obnoxiously_ funny, he didn't want to give her so much room to advance in all too equivocal confidence.

As if the real problem was the nature of her jokes and not the incredible empathy and sweetness that that _little girl_ showed.

He knew how much that attitude was a response given solely to provoke and tease him, but young McTavish was really moving forward on a path he didn't want to take. Or perhaps it was better to admit that he was afraid to walk it, especially with her, especially after experiencing how tender it was to have her near him.

Selene, for her part, had sensed how much that little time spent with Jensen had made them again too aware of certain feelings, and it was now easy for her to guess how to put a gap between them.

The more she behaved and acted recklessly and impudently, the more he withdrew, placing himself at a metaphorical safety distance. Giving him the impression that she was looking for a game to have fun with was the best way to bring everything back to normal and to maintain a purely _colloquial_ relationship.

But that a lightning bolt could strike her at that very moment, if she dared to deny the evidence.

How _sublime_ would it have been to abandon herself on that rooftop with Adam Jensen? Out in the rain, just the two of them busy warming each other up? What would it have been like to deprive themselves of any foolish fear to give in to that hint of warmth experienced several hours earlier?

The image in her mind forced her to stop. She took a quick look at Jensen before turning her back on him, certain that her face showed enough without the need to be probed by _that_ social enhancer. In all honesty, she had to admit that she was no longer so sure that the agent had continued to use it.

If the man had decided to do without his graft, it could somehow mean that the ex-SWAT was starting to trust her more. She had no intention of drawing a hasty conclusion, but it seemed absurdly plausible to her.

Jensen must have had his good reasons for always showing so little of himself, and after all, it wasn't really a problem that he chose to continue with that confidentiality. It would have been complicated to know details about his life and find herself even more intrigued, even more willing to get to know him better. There were such obvious differences between them that they could not simply be ignored with goodwill or with a calm and peaceful dialogue.

If on the one hand, Selene acted carelessly to put a stop to whatever was bringing them so close, on the other hand, there was Adam with his detached self-control — and with that severe frown that made his eyebrows furrowed, sharpening his expression lines on his forehead, and squeezing his eyelids for a few moments, making his gentle gaze a little more serious and authoritarian.

The girl barely sighed, finally moving towards the edge of the building, the weak rain that accompanied her there. She placed her hands on the portion of the cornice in front of her, raising her face to taste the water on her exposed skin, feeling slipping away the dust, sweat and that faint trace of blood that had dripped on her forehead during the fight.

When she heard Adam's footsteps, a small smile escaped her, casting a glance over her shoulder to look at him a moment before returning to the surrounding landscape. Once he was close to her, Selene stood fully up on the wall and then sat with her legs dangling in the air.

«Hey», he said, going all the way to keep an eye on her. «Your powers include the ability to fall from high height without hurting yourself?»

Selene giggled, taking a quick look at him. «No, unfortunately not, but I'm good at climbing and descending very quickly, clinging where I can. You have no idea how many times I terrorized Artair and Damian with this ability of mine.»

The man twirled his gaze as he crossed his arms to his chest, while the ACRNM coat was getting wetter on his shoulders. «Then you've always been a bit of a bitch...»

She smiled at him again, nodding a moment before returning to the cityscape. «Never said otherwise.»

Jensen waited a moment before hoisting himself up on the wall with a mellifluous movement to sit beside her; he felt BlueDevil's niece's gaze upon him during the rapid move, finally having a confirmation when he was beside her. He looked at her, receiving a curious glance and a sly smile as he too let his legs dangle over the ledge.

Although the sky was completely clouded over their heads, and although the rain continued to fall with reassuring calm, a small gap in the clouds allowed the first sun's glow to peep over the horizon, behind the silhouettes of palaces and low buildings.

Selene emitted a long sigh, staring at the scene with a fierce expression. «This part of town was abandoned after the Incident, right?»

The agent looked at her for a moment, nodding quickly, sure that she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

«Were you already here in Prague?», asked the girl in a relaxed voice.

The feeling of emptiness that pervaded his stomach made him feel imperceptibly uncomfortable, lightning thought that lingered on the memory of that terrible day, all that that _nightmare_ had represented for him.

«No, I moved in earlier this year.»

The girl nodded weakly, tilting her face against one shoulder. She hesitated another long second, staring at the world in front of them and taking a few more moments to ponder whether to ask the next question.

In that particular case, she didn't want Jensen to retract into his _shell_.

«Were you... Were you already augmented by the time... By the time the Incident happened?»

Adam exhaled slowly, his _alien_ eyes first turned to the landscape and then gave a silent and attentive nod to the girl, scrutinizing her profile. He watched her turn around and look at him with a sort of reverential fear, as if she was afraid of offending or annoying him.

He nodded to her slowly, just once, the quiet expression. «Yes, I was augmented six months before the Incident.»

Selene seemed to relax instantly thanks to his calm reaction. Suddenly Jensen was sure that she simply wanted to get close to him without upsetting him, without making him uncomfortable. In her way, with that impetuous tenderness that man had not experienced in a long time.

«During the Incident, Artair and I were still in the UK with Damian. Luckily, we lived in a country house, far away from the big cities.» She paused and took a look at the ex-SWAT. «A man who was driving a car with his girlfriend beside him, in the passenger seat, lost control of the car and ran into a tree not far from the farm. I pulled them out of the car, she died in the accident, and he... Well, uh... He was augmented.»

Selene shook her head, clearing her voice, noticing out of the corner of her eye Jensen still looking at her with that understanding and attentive _alien_ look.

«I said "was", but I assume he's still alive. I guess. I _hope_.»

She squeezed her shoulders, rocking her feet in a barely nervous nod.

«When that man tried to hit me, I was on the verge of responding to his attack, thinking only of my survival, but... There was something that made me give up. I took two punches in the face while I was trying to stop him and when I did, I tried to understand...»

The young woman brought her legs close to her, lifting them to cross them frontally, stretching her back slightly as she bent her shoulders in a movement that indicated a certain restlessness.

«I tried to see what he saw.»

Adam took a long, questioning look at her, immediately noticing how tense the discussion made her. «What do you mean?»

Selene shook her head in a nod, as if she no longer intended to continue. It was actually an iconic gesture to reorganize her thoughts and to make what she was about to say easier to understand.

«I got in touch with his mind and I saw what he saw and, shit, that feeling crept under my skin like a swarm of insects.»

She denied again, her face slightly bent over in that brief pause, then returned to look at the man next to her.

«I can't say for sure, but what happened that day is a far cry from the story on the Picus news. I _saw_ what that man saw, I _felt_ what he felt, and it was heartbreaking and terrible.»

Jensen nodded imperceptibly, the sordid feeling of fear that stood there, beyond his tongue, and slipped like a worm into his mind. If he too had to use two adjectives to describe that day, he would have used the same words as the girl: heartbreaking and terrible.

She felt it indirectly, she _saw_ it. Although he wasn't sure he could tell her what role he had played on that occasion, it was a relief to know that maybe, _maybe_ , he could tell her about it in the future. Because it was such a burden that it often left him devastated.

Selene waited a moment before continuing, unsure whether to really continue while she observed the inscrutable expression of man, but by now she was ready to dare a little more.

«So, Adam, I understand what you might have been going through, if it happened to you. If you're one of those people who went crazy during the Incident...»

When Jensen finally understood the reason for those words, he couldn't help but feel partly, _a very small part_ , irritated, as if she was giving him a weakness from which he had never been nicked, and partly, _a very large part_ , greatly surprised by that surge of empathy.

He nodded again calmly, a simple consent nod with a quick smile, the slight elevation of a corner of the lips.

«Fortunately, no, Selene, I'm not one of those people.»

The girl stood up for a moment, back and shoulders straight for that bit of embarrassment that she could not conceal in any way.

«Oh. Okay. I'm sorry. I know it's none of my business. I'm sorry if I assumed that maybe...»

He interrupted her, feeling how much he had in truth appreciated her clumsy attempt to understand him, another demonstration of how much in truth Selene was a particularly sweet and empathic person.

«But thank you for telling me anyway.»

The young woman was astonished for a moment by that unexpected answer, wondering what exactly had changed in all their situation. Because something had changed, and being aware of it made her subtly unprepared, even perhaps agitated.

She returned to watch the dawn hidden from time to time by the clouds, while the rain seemed to decrease just a little bit to give her a semblance of respite, on the contrary by the inner storm that was stirring in her mind.

And next to her Adam, almost as a prediction of a future she never thought possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely hope that Adam is not OOC and that Selene's story was not too bloody or, equally plausible, too predictable/cloying.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Selene prepare to infiltrate the Versalife facility in Hradec Králové, setting aside for as long as necessary everything that brought them closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight references to sex here and there, so impossible to avoid.  
> I remind you that if you find this fanfiction unsuitable for your taste, just don't read it. The last thing I want is to upset the sensitivity of possible readers and fans of the Adam Jensen saga.
> 
> Anyway, song for the chapter: [The Weeknd - The Hills](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxdSHfZFKkY)

Selene emitted a long sigh, her gaze turned to the city panorama barely caressed by the rain that was gradually becoming lighter and lighter, before turning to look at the man next to her.

She looked at Adam's profile for a few moments, his beard curled up to his neck, his right ear of a fairly common size, the marks on his cheek deforming the dark hairs, his cheekbone marked, the black _comma_ beyond the outer corner of the eye, the pronounced nose, the goatee that slightly lengthened the chin, the damp hair that fell a little on the forehead compared to the usual shape.

She peered at him for interminable seconds and extrapolated an almost obvious reflection from the fleeting chaos in her mind: Adam was really handsome. Not only physically, Selene's opinion would never have been reduced to a simple objective observation of man's physical characteristics, but it ranged towards a much more pondered meaning.

Adam was a gentle beauty, a human beauty. That kind of beauty in which the young girl preferred to linger, to improve herself and to better understand the rest of the world.

It was not so bizarre to come to that new conclusion at that very moment, while the ex-SWAT remained beside her in contemplative silence, also fascinated by the panorama and the unexpected quiet that vibrated in that place, the first lights of the morning that, despite the blanket of clouds, reverberated against his face.

When Jensen turned to look at her, intrigued by that insistent glance, she immediately regained her senses and _locked herself_ in his golden-green gaze.

«What is it?», he asked, the voice a little uncertain.

Adam had noticed the slight movement of the young woman as soon as she turned around, but he had not expected to find himself fixed so intensely and for longer than expected.

Selene's blue eyes, together with the expression on her face, indicated that she had a variety of thoughts on her mind, and the way the unexpressed emotions furrowed and guided the girl's non-verbal responses suggested that they were rather peculiar meditations.

It had been a long time since someone gave him such a look, as if the young lady was ready to find in him more than Adam was really willing to donate.

The last time a woman looked at him like that, he knew what to do, what to say, how to react — a previous life now abandoned, hidden among his memories. That it was Selene who observed him with that sort of intimate waiting and tender sweetness was the most destabilizing thing that could happen to him.

The girl shook her head, staring back at the horizon.

«You were not obliged to stay with me. You were not obliged to look for me. Apart from the request to collaborate proposed by my uncle, I cannot find a valid reason why you chose to stay here with me.» She inhaled and exhaled deeply, lifting her shoulders in the gesture. «I feel a little guilty at the idea that in a few hours you will have to go to work, while I can go home and sleep presumably until lunchtime.»

The agent still observed her, a little more surprised by the serious tone with which she was talking, but absolutely unable to miss a little amused smile.

«I really don't need much sleep», he replied, «but if it reassures you, I don't intend to go to the office in the morning, but only in the afternoon.»

She gave him another quick glance, a flick of the lips to hide a dubious nod. «Are you so good at your job that you can afford to devote only half a day to it? Or will you also work in the evening?»

That last question suddenly alarmed him, tilting his back and his head with a nod: how the hell did he forget the matter of Hradec Králové?

The agent moved back to get up on the wall, inviting the young woman to do the same while he held out his closest hand to her.

«Shit, actually we have to go to the Belltower complex tonight.»

Selene looked at him a second from bottom to top, amazed, bursting out laughing at the way she had received that information.

«No, wait a moment», she began, accepting the _chivalrous_ gesture of the man to get up. «Are you telling me that I made you forget such a thing?»

She shook her head in an amused nod, snapping her tongue on the palate to produce the classic " _tks_ - _tks_ - _tks_ " of fake disapproval.

«Do I have a bad influence on you too, Jensen, or did you just want to spend time with me? Not that it's so different after all.»

The ex-SWAT covered his eyes with the shields, a lip angle raised in a not entirely enthusiastic sneer. The idea that he had really put aside that imminent infiltration, something so serious and important, left him prone to a certain personal disappointment.

«Which of the two options makes your ass move faster?», he promptly rebounded.

The girl smiled again, rolling her eyes with a hint of exasperation. «Of course you're really good at it...»

Adam gave her an amused look hidden by the shields, concealing in the same way the intrigued sneer she had been causing him for some time. When he observed her turning to get off the wall, he blocked her weakly by touching her arm, then moving his hand so as not to touch her again on that ledge; he did not want to risk accidentally let her losing her balance.

Selene gave him a doubtful expression, paying some attention to the movements to make in order not to fall or slip. Although physically strong and resistant, with remarkable adaptability, she might not even have the time to cling to some handhold if she fell.

«Don't we have to go?», she asked him a bit surprised.

«Yes, but let's take the elevator», the man proposed, accompanying the words with a vague nod.

BlueDevil's niece shook her head, looking towards the door of the roof. «I don't think there is any electricity here. Aside from the solar panel lighting system for the emergency lights.»

«In fact, I'm not talking about a conventional elevator», he continued, an inner sneer ready to betray him while enjoying the perplexed expression of the young girl.

«I don't understand what you're talking about...», she began with a considerably more uncertain tone, tempted to cross her arms to her chest in a gesture of pure exasperation.

Realizing the possibility that the man was teasing her left her more surprised than really annoyed, not after she had metaphorically tortured him with jokes and allusive comments in the last two hours. She almost hoped that Jensen would loosen up a little bit and start to rhyme with jokes and comments.

The agent bent down fast enough to bring one hand under the female knees and the other around her tiny back, making the girl squeak in a surprised noise as soon as he lifted her in front of him, like if she weighed nothing; he finally rotated a little on the torso to return facing the surrounding landscape, literally holding the young McTavish suspended in the void.

«What the hell are you doing?!», she asked alarmed.

Selene had no control over her arms, which automatically grabbed on to the shoulders of the agent from above his coat, while clamping her legs in an unnerved movement.

Finding herself several meters above the ground, held in the arms of a person on whom she really wanted to place her trust, even if she was inexorably guarded by simple scruples, made her rather tense.

«Fuck, Adam, put me down. I told you that long falls can still hurt me...»

Jensen did not pay much attention to the sudden pressure that the girl's hands applied around his shoulders, and he also ignored the way Selene's body had literally leaned against his own, clinging to him with a certain vehemence. It was a reaction that made him smile, far more amused than legit, but he had definitely hoped to provoke that reaction.

It was the first time he was able to perceive Selene absolutely surprised by his actions, really surprised; perhaps conveyed by a hint of uncertainty, but he also recognized a discreet curiosity. Suddenly he had a regenerating desire, like a breath of fresh air, to show the young woman something that could have amazed her even more.

After all, he had to thank her for giving him a few moments of simple freedom away from everything and everyone. The promise to show her his personal _seahorse_ was still valid, and Adam knew that it was not the dawn observed from a rooftop that made him so predisposed to such behavior.

Selene felt her heart spurt directly into her throat when the man jumped forward. She held her breath as soon as the fall began to _press down_ on every point of her body, bending her face completely over Jensen's neck, closing her eyes and squeezing her hands more tightly around his shoulders.

She felt the change in the descent as the wind whistling in her ears turned into an indistinct sound of electric shocks and hearing distortions that still did not have the power to distract her from what she thought would happen. When she felt the slight backlash, Adam's fingers held her more firmly so that she would not slip and she reacted by sinking even more into the collar of the man's coat. She had to wait a few seconds before she could hear the normal noises again, starting from the light drizzle to the weak wind between the neighboring buildings.

Jensen remained motionless as soon as he realized how tenderly the girl was squeezing him, _forcing him_ not to be able to move her to let her feet protected by the boots back onto the ground, and how intensely he could feel her breath reaching his neck and right ear, creeping far beyond the fabric of his coat.

He had considered for a moment to deactivate the shields again, but decided not to do so for a very _good_ reason.

«Selene», he called her, clearing his voice unnecessarily, knowing full well that he had it hoarser than expected. «We are on the ground.»

The young lady trembled for a moment, starting to loosen her hands while with more uncertainty she chose to move her head, the breath came out in a more sudden sigh. When she was a little further away, she stood up slightly, first looking at the agent and then taking a quick look around her.

For a long moment, Adam Jensen _thanked_ mentally any hypothetical otherworldly entity for making him decide not to retract the dermal grafts that hidden his gaze, because when he realized that he had stared at her lips on several occasions, finding them so close that he could easily admire their fleshy and soft fullness, he did not know how to behave.

The girl lifted her face to look at the palace behind the man, recognizing it immediately from the gate and the main door. When she returned to stare at the ex-SWAT her expression changed into a hint of disbelief and tension.

«What have you done?», she made, the tone a little louder than usual.

She tried to relax her arms, but it wasn't enough to allow the ex-SWAT to get her down.

«I am equipped with an assisted landing system that allows me to minimize the speed of falling from a high height», he replied mechanically, tilting his head slightly backward to place a few more inches between their faces.

Selene remained stunned for a moment, the awareness of having just passed a rapid descent, possibly even sufficiently harmful to her body — perhaps not fatal — thanks to man.

«You... You _what..._?»

Adam waited a few more moments before answering, finally trying to become the master of his actions and expression again.

He was not sure that, despite the shields, part of his agitation was not visible, but he hoped that the emotions that the girl was feeling at that moment, and of which he could grasp any nuance thanks to the very short distance, would distract her abundantly.

«Then _there is_ something that scares you», he commented, trying to use a hilarious tone.

Selene collected herself, standing up on her back and better perceiving the agent's robotic hands between her shoulder blades and on the back of her knees.

«Scared? Me?», she said in a surprised voice. «No, absolutely! It was an incredible coolness and I closed my eyes like a fool!»

She tilted her face slightly towards him, holding her arms a little tighter.

«Come on, please, let's do it again!», she added with extreme spontaneity.

The man remained silent for an instant, raising his eyebrows for the expression of amazement that he could not hold back. A genuine and intense amusement broke his lip line, making him laugh out loud for that sentence said with absolute innocence.

Selene had not used those words to embroider an allusive comment on it to tease him, he was perfectly aware of it; it was also an incredibly long time that he did not feel so strongly the impulse to let himself go of that absurdly invigorating hilarity.

«Damn, girl...», Jensen did, shaking his head in a condescending nod.

He was sure to feel much more relieved from any tension and he was ready to _repay_ the young McTavish with the same coin used by her several times, just because he was much more relaxed than expected.

«Already? You are insatiable...», he added in a slightly lower tone.

Making Selene blush was definitely fantastic.

He saw her open her mouth to formulate some answers, her cheeks on fire and her eyes moved elsewhere, showing that if she wasn't the first to lead the _game_ with mischievous and rather equivocal jokes she seemed to go back to a genuinely embarrassed condition.

However, he could not know how surprised Selene felt when she saw him laughing so spontaneously and sincerely — the sort of disbelief that made her wonder if it was really because of her that Jensen was showing so much of himself.

When the young woman finally gave him a slightly wrinkled look, Jensen had not expected to see her approaching him again, bringing her face close to his neck and squeezing her arms slightly around his shoulders.

He felt her inhale deeply and then exhale directly onto his skin after having moved the collar of the coat without much ceremony with a pair of female fingers, finally going up with the tip of the nose in a light touch on the earlobe.

The thrill that the man felt at that moment was the first of a long series, together with a dull pressure in the center of his chest.

She had _smelled_ him without hesitation and that awareness made him all too aware of the agitation he had thought had vanished completely a few moments before.

«Oh, you have no idea how insatiable I am, Adam Jensen. Your scent smells good, but mixed with the smell of rain is something incredible», she murmured in a low, calm tone, a slight hint of malice only at the end of the sentence.

He was definitely wrong.

Did the agent really think that Selene was somehow embarrassed? Did he really believe that that _little girl_ would not rhyme with his hypothetical and metaphorical surrender?

Maybe she hadn't waited for anything else, maybe the young lady had literally waited for the man to give in a little in turn, letting himself go to really _risky_ confidence. Especially in that situation, while Selene was in his arms and was claiming the right to press her lips lightly against his absurdly sensitive ear.

Selene's was not a simple joke uttered just to tease him, it was a verbal response accompanied by a rather obvious physical request. Very obvious.

The girl's right hand moved over the man's face in a gentle caress, guiding him to turn towards her while the young McTavish moved her head a little away.

The ex-SWAT swallowed a moment before his mouth opened, sure that Selene would burn the very short distance to kiss him. She looked at him with that intimate expectation, left her feminine palm against the cheek of the agent in an attentive and gentle gesture, and did not stop for a single moment to look at him in the _alien_ eyes.

Jensen almost wanted to look for that furious sense of terror that he should have felt from the simple prospect that Selene was close enough to kiss him effortlessly — a twenty-two-year-old girl kissing him, a _little girl_ who thought she could take something like that from him — but instead he felt incredibly calm.

He couldn't help but make a sort of request on his face, the silent need that Selene not to linger any longer in that childish game, because such was, if she continued to stand there, just two inches from Adam's mouth.

And yet when the young woman gave him a smile of challenge, almost victorious, Selene proved to be perfectly able to move her legs to get out of the man's grip, leaving him amazed by the lightning-fast way she went some feet away.

Once she was far enough, she turned to stare at him, her hands crossed behind her back and her face raised in a nod of understanding.

«What are you doing standing there? Are you waiting for something, Jensen?»

Her amused and cheerful voice provoked in the man a small grunt in the bottom of the throat, his eyebrows wrinkled together with his forehead and his eyes hidden by the shields well focused on her.

«You little...», he murmured to himself.

Since when did he let himself be fooled so easily? And since when did he start wanting Selene to act in a much more direct and brazen way?

The thought that she could kiss him was so unexpected and surprising that he knew he would do nothing to stop her. On the contrary, in complete honesty, he was also quite sure that he would indulge her, that he would let her press her soft, fleshy lips against his.

He was sure that he would, in turn, separate the curtain of her teeth with his tongue to taste her and to be able to amaze her: it was absurdly obvious, the instinct-driven by the experience accumulated over the years was screaming that such a contact, wet and hot, much more adult and needy, would be for Selene sudden and hurried, but not at all unpleasant. Something suggested to him that for her it would be too hungry, maybe even impetuous and voracious, but he was sure she wouldn't mind at all.

Imagine tasting the girl's lips left him so shaken that he shook his head and cleared his throat with another grunt, moving in the direction of the nearest subway station, overtaking the young lady with haste.

A healthy sleep would clear his head and remove any impulse to satisfy a human desire that he had suppressed almost every day during those last years.

He didn't need to go back to feel those feelings, especially not with a woman too young for him. Not with a person with whom he needed to maintain a relationship of collaboration and trust. Not with a girl who acted as if she didn't fear anything and as if she wanted to shout to the whole world how little she cared what strangers thought.

Just like Selene was demonstrating at that very moment, after they had reached the subway.

She had followed Adam with her eyes for a few moments before remembering that he had to travel in the wagon intended for the augs. She reached him at the last second, slipping through the doors that were about to close and ignoring the astonished expressions of the few other passengers augmented with more or less evident grafts.

She moved in front of the agent, positioned frontally to a steel support rod very close to the exit, and leaned against it with her shoulders, hands behind her back to show off that relaxed lightness again, her face raised towards the man in a calm smile.

Adam remained with his arms crossed over his chest, swaying barely by the movements of the metro, his eyes covered by the shields that completely concealed the way he was looking at her.

Because he was looking at her, scrutinizing her, _admiring her_.

Selene showed mercilessly a radiant, cheerful, intimately happy expression.

If he reminded himself of the way, a few hours earlier, her blue gaze and clear voice had been overwhelmed by sadness and agony, he could not help but wonder whether she was well at that moment thanks to him; or whether it was an incredible inner strength that man was beginning to taste, legitimately, after having both given themselves a little more confidence and need to know each other.

It was at least useless to even dare to deny it: Adam had felt the need to be close to her, and Selene had welcomed him with disarming promptness, with a spontaneity he did not think he deserved.

How was it possible that a girl like her, a girl who had faced and experienced such horrible events on her own skin, was so good, so kind, so sweet?

From beyond the shields, Jensen's _alien_ eyes lingered without hesitation on the female face. Her wet hair dyed purple, despite her ponytail, let a few drops of rain that had gathered there unscrupulously, caressing and slipping on both sides.

It was impossible not to be bewitched by a damp line that ran through the design of the seahorse, only to _move_ faster over the cheekbone, the cheek, the decisive curve of the jaw, finally disappearing under the raised collar of the fake leather jacket.

Part of him wanted to feel guilty for being so willing to _take_ without hesitation everything Selene was _giving_ him with efficient spontaneity — her closeness, her resourcefulness, her vision of the world.

A part of him was letting himself be inexorably defeated by that _little girl_ 's impetuous and tender gait. He knew he didn't have to allow her to advance any further, but Adam felt the overwhelming impulse to surrender to that stupid inner struggle.

They remained silent the whole time of the trip. Even though the Překážka station was the closest on the prearranged metro route, the agent began to consider, during the entire journey, to stop at the Dávný district, perhaps not exactly to take her home, but only to the main entrance of the Libuše apartments.

It was Selene who pointed out to him in the same way that they were about to arrive at the closest stop to the Zeleň condominium, suggesting that she, in turn, remembered where the man lived.

«We've almost arrived at your destination», did the girl with a still serene smile.

Yet Adam's mind continued to dwell on that _desire_.

He would have accompanied her up to the entrance of the condominium, up to the access of the inner courtyard, and then he would have gone away instantaneously.

He would have accompanied her home, greet her on the landing, and then leave before he even saw her approach the door of her apartment, because he knew he did not have to stay in her company any longer.

He would have accompanied her home, staying for a moment at the entrance door and then moving a few steps to reach her, closing the door behind him; he would not have interrupted even for a moment the eye contact, his eyes exposed again to let her understand in which _direction_ they were both going. And finally, he would have lift her by the waist to lead her to sit on the small dining table, guiding her with his carbon hands to tilt her face for him — towards him.

A _harassing_ part of himself wanted to overlook how many differences there were between them, but Jensen couldn't ignore the voice of reason screaming how wrong it would be to give in and drag her with him into something so indefinite and uncertain.

Their lives were already quite complicated without being reduced to finding comfort in a human and purely instinctive action like sex for its own sake. They had known each other for too short a time to think that such an _event_ could somehow lead to something positive, or that it could at least keep their relationship unchanged without incurring anything that might change afterward. No matter how much someone might profess otherwise, having sex would lead them to change inexorably.

What frightened Adam even more was that he could not predict _how_ they would change, _what_ they would become if instead of a boulder-heavy silence they chose to surrender to something so ephemeral, heartbreaking and absolutely magnificent.

He himself would have been mature enough even for the young girl, a way of not making her make such a mistake. Because it would have been an unforgivable mistake to give each other that kind of relief.

The agent moved to overtake the girl with a sigh to ripple his lips surrounded by his beard, while she turned around the steel rod to follow him with her eyes. Once the sliding doors opened, the ex-SWAT remained barely motionless a moment, a last moment of uncertainty before getting out of the wagon, turning to look at her when he was on the pitifully reduced platform of the Čapek Fountain Station.

The metro started moving again and Selene simply lifted one hand in a wave of greeting, a smile on her lips and slight tiredness to numb her limbs. Once at the Pilgrim's Station, under the suspended structure of red and blue pills bearing the name of Versalife, the vu-phone in the jacket pocket began to vibrate.

A little sigh escaped her amused to recognize the frequency not yet memorized. She did not have time to formulate an adequate response because she heard Adam Jensen's voice impose itself with a peremptory tone.

« _Go home and don't get into trouble on the way._ »

She giggled. «Yes, _daddy_. I will try not to stumble on the steps that separate me from my apartment.»

« _Uh-huh, funny..._ »

She waited for a moment, reaching the opening of the Libuše condominium while she paid some attention to the few people in the courtyard, a sort of legitimate embarrassment at the idea that some stranger might hear her answer.

«If you're so worried about the idea of me being alone, facing such a difficult path by foot, you could have walked me home, Jensen.»

_And we both know you would have stayed over, Adam. Fuck if we know._

Selene had again sensed during the metro trip that incredible longing to indulge a desire that she usually, for a purely psychological reason, tended to occasionally vent to other girls. It was not for nothing that during the rave she had set her eyes on Jana, stopping only when that black guy had also been _invited._

The violence she suffered at the age of thirteen had led her to consume intercourse with people of the opposite sex with very little frequency. She felt the need to know more about a male partner before even considering having sex with him, but often knowing too much about someone could lead to dynamics to which the young woman had no time or way to devote herself.

The fact that she felt physically attracted to Adam was all too well linked to the need to _see him_ just enough to be able to collaborate in the field, in the _childish_ need to want to trust him.

She could easily enough obstruct that feeling, or she could choose to give in to it. She did not take it for granted that the man felt exactly the same thing, she could recognize when someone felt themselves a stranger in their body. She had also been through this years ago and for a long time.

Jensen ignored her last answer, a note of tension in his voice made slightly different from the phone call.

« _Phone your uncle as soon as you are awake. Tonight, we have to get into that structure and I do not intend to be your tour guide. I want you rested, not ready to get in my way._ »

Selene let slip a silent smile, shaking her head slightly.

Adam Jensen seemed to have a well-defined business card: always professional, always diligent. As comforting as it was on the _battlefield_ , the young woman couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

The agent could also have ended it all with the first two words of his very last sentence, instead of adding absolutely useless details.

An " _I want you_ " that echoed among her thoughts, a harassing reflection that inexorably collided in her mind between rationality and legitimate fear.

«I'll make sure to do it now», she answered after that quick moment of silence. «It will still be fun to tell Artair that I am only coming home now. He will probably wonder what I have done and with _whom_. He knew we were together, right?»

An indistinct grunt reached her ear just before the ex-SWAT interrupted the call abruptly, making her smile again.

She could choose between continuing to annoy Jensen in the usual way, now proven enough to keep him at a distance, or she could begin to advance more stubbornly towards him, uncertain of the answers she would receive.

In one case or another, Selene still had nothing to lose, just because for her very few things remained stable and safe, sadly accustomed to seeing nothing like that preserved, nothing so illusory and fleeting.

That sad awareness would haunt her for years, perhaps for the rest of her life. No matter how prepared she was to face it, living with it would always be a source of profound discomfort and discouragement.

It was a void that she was trying to fill in the wrong way, a void that really only deserved to be understood, studied, gutted. The kind of void from which she should have learned something and not let herself be guided. And yet, she could not help but feel more and more defeated in the face of that overwhelming weight.

It was there, in that void, that her demons were hiding.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Selene loved to arrive early at any commitment, especially when what she had to do was not exactly the wisest and most legal way to spend a Thursday evening at the end of November.

She had informed her uncle that she was on hold leaning against his car parked near his apartment in the Čistá neighborhood, the vu-phone in one hand and Bluetooth headphones stuck in her ears to listen to some music in the silence of the downtown street.

Artair had suggested her to wait for Adam's arrival at his house, probably to recommend again, an infinite number of times, what to do during the _mission,_ but she responded negatively to the proposal.

When she arrived at her home that morning after the last phone call with the agent, she had a quick bite to eat and contacted her uncle to receive all the useful files on the Belltower complex via computer — in truth, they should have called it Versalife facility.

She had slept through lunchtime, showered and printed other rows while eating a more substantial and complete meal. With a very quick _trip_ ,shewent to retrieve the books and the wool scarf from Koller's store, staying and talking with him for just over half an hour — just enough time to check that nothing had changed between them, finding out with a bit of fun how much the boy was still suffering the horrible effects of a hangover.

The young man had asked her before she left if she had an answer for his job offer and Selene had admitted that she had to discuss it with Artair, as working hours at the Time Machine lasted until twenty-two in the evening. However, she added with extreme sincerity that she was thinking about it, making it clear how much she would have liked to work in the library.

However, she had not mentioned to Vaclav or his relative what had happened with Jensen. No matter how much she joked about the idea of talking about it just for the sake of poking the ex-SWAT a bit, she would never have told such details to anyone. It was a set of thoughts and reflections too intimate and personal to be so quietly exposed to one of them.

On the one hand, she knew that Adam would not appreciate a _direct_ interest from Koller, although Selene felt very comfortable with the doctor, but on the other hand, there was her uncle, and although they were quite close, the young woman was perfectly aware of what Artair would extrapolate from her _relationship_ with the agent.

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders with a small smile on her lips, the usual fake leather jacket that protected her torso up to her hips. Her body was covered in the same tactical clothing she had worn in the Bubeneč neighborhood about ten days before.

It was a suit specially made for her by a _tailor_ who had beenintroduced to her by Damian Fisher several years ago: the man who had created that combat outfit for the girl was an anonymous gentleman of over seventy years who lived in England with his wife and an unknown number of pets.

The suit was reinforced near the vital organs with Kevlar coatings and textile thickenings down the limbs. The upper extremities of the suit were attached to the fingers through elastic bands that covered the palms, together with gloves sewn on the end of the sleeves so as not to leave any fingerprints. The lower extremities ended almost in the same way, with elastic bands that adhered to the soles of the feet so that the edge of the pants would not lift at any time. As for footwear, she did not have the usual boots worn by frequent use, but shoes much softer and suitable for the purpose, closed with tear-off laces and a zipper on the inside. Around the neck she kept the excess fabric that was used to cover her head and half of her face, leaving only her eyes exposed.

The concealment of her identity was often extremely useful, because although she was extremely careful to avoid surveillance cameras or guards, details such as her hair color or tattoos could make it easily recognizable if _someone_ prepared was cross-checking her activities and those of her uncle.

The problem with that dress was only in the part she wore around her head, precisely because it was limited to the task of _hiding_ and not _protecting_ , but fortunately for her, the only time she had risked being hit by bullets, bots, drones and turrets had certainly not bothered to take good aim.

Selene bent her face slightly, a corner of her lips caught in a nod of discomfort. The hair tied in the tight bunch pulled her scalp a little bit, but it was best not to risk a few strands slipping out of control, even if the cold crept under her ears like an icy caress, making her shiver from time to time.

She narrowly squinted her eyelids as she focused on the song spread through her earphones, finding herself humming it to herself while her mind again scrutinized with extreme care all the information she had learned during the afternoon.

«You're too mean, I don't like you, fuck you anyway. You make me wanna scream at the top of my lungs. It hurts but I won't fight you. You suck anyway. You make me wanna die, right when I...»

She let herself go for a short break, following the melody that only she could hear, heedless of the outside world.

«When I wake up I'm [afraid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkOP8jLdq_g), somebody else might take my place. When I wake up I'm afraid, somebody else might end being me.»

She realized that she was being observed only when the person who was staring at her moved close enough to be seen in turn.

Adam Jensen gave her a long, silent, inscrutable look from behind the dark shields, the light from the street lamps that made his face sharper than it really was.

He wore the coat, underneath it comfortable and versatile black clothing, but with him he had a closed duffel bag, presumably full, held in one hand without any apparent fatigue.

The young woman got rid of the earphones, disconnected them from her vu-phone after turning them off and put them in her jacket pocket, while returning the device to her ear after making a quick call.

«Adam has just arrived. We are waiting for you», she told her uncle without the need to add anything else.

« _I'll be right there_ », Artair replied in a serious voice.

The girl put the phone in her pocket, leaving her hand there, and then did the same with the other one on the opposite side. She turned to look at the man a few feet away, seeing him approaching after a moment to lean against the side next to her.

The agent lit a cigarette calmly, taking a couple of puffs before passing it to the young lady, the duffel bag left on the floor between them. Selene agreed to give in again to that little _vice_ , a nod to the bag to anticipate her curiosity.

«Have you been shopping?», she asked in a relaxed voice.

«These are actually borrowed _items_. From Interpol», replied the man in a serious tone. «I had to stock up on material that theoretically I shouldn't let out of the office where I work. Fortunately, I can move properly so as not to get caught, but this means that I will have to get rid of them once the mission is completed.»

«Uh-uh-uh...», began Selene with a mischievous giggle. «Does professional Adam Jensen steal work material from his own office? And to think that I thought I was the one with a bad influence on my friends. I guess I just have to learn from you.»

«There is no doubt about that», he provoked her, giving her a hidden glance and a little sneer.

The young woman stretched a weak elbow on his robotic arm, both covered by their respective overcoats, denying with her head as she giggled in turn and seeing in the man one an amused nod for that absolutely friendly contact.

«And then it would be me, the bitch... In any case, is there anything for me?», advanced Selene with a smile, one last puff before returning the cigarette.

The agent lifted the corner of the lips that BlueDevil's niece could not see from her side position, taking up the tobacco-filled tube between his carbon fingers and leading the filter to the right height for smoking.

«Something to take with us so that we can have faster silent communications with your uncle as well.»

«More avant-garde transmitters, I presume», she commented, a slow nod of consent. «Yes, that's an excellent idea, since I don't have brain grafts. Maybe sometime you could tell me what it is like to have an implant in the mastoid bone. It will be annoying...»

Jensen sneered again, ignoring that last sentence to get back to the really important part of the conversation.

«Transmitters with codes that can be rewritten in a couple of seconds, so that if we ever find ourselves in the situation you found yourself in France, you will get back in touch with Artair without any problems and my direct help.»

Selene nodded quickly, claiming the cigarette again with one hand movement.

« _My_ far-sighted man...», she murmured without looking at him, perfectly aware that he had heard her anyway.

When she realized that he had used a possessive adjective she could not avoid crossing her arms to her chest in a subtly tense gesture, trying to appear more relaxed and loosening the stiffness of her shoulders with a couple of movements.

«You are nervous.»

It was an affirmation that the man did not bother to sweeten, which in any case could not be offensive or amused.

She took one look at him, shaking her head. «No, it's not nervousness, but it's my instinct that gives me warning signals. When I prepare myself for something like this, I realize that I give way to all the years of training I've been through, as if I were to make that part of me emerge again that... That at Horus Field they wanted to _get me out of it_ good or bad.»

At those words, she saw Adam tend in the same way, the certainty that he was trying to understand if she would _collapse_ again because of the weight of her past.

«A part of me that sometimes, still after a long time, I can't fully understand and that sometimes I... It upsets me», Selene added, squeezing herself slightly in the shoulders, aspirating mouthfuls of nicotine one after the other. «A part of me that still allows me to rely on those bizarrely easier actions for my body. An innate predisposition to fight. My survival instinct takes over everything and I become more... Receptive and sensitive, if it helps to better understand what I mean.»

The man let slip a small verse of assent, allowing her to smoke again. He knew how to recognize when beyond words and the rigidity of the body there were much stronger feelings to face.

«Even more talkative», he teased her in a surge of impulsiveness, almost hoping to distract her from her obviously gloomy thoughts.

Selene smiled calmly, a slow nod of assent as she lifted her hand with the cigarette in a somewhat high-sounding gesture, a semblance of truly unusual aristocratic elegance.

«Between the two of us», she began, «someone has to fill in the _embarrassing_ silences we've been dragging along since this morning.»

Adam bowed his eyebrows weakly over the shields in a surprised gesture, bowing his face to exhale and lifting it immediately afterward. He understood perfectly well what she was referring to and didn’t need to add anything in response, the tacit request to bring back among them precisely that silence full of meaning.

They both heard the strong metallic sound of the door of the nearby building and immediately spotted the access opening inwards to reveal the figure of Artair, with a large duffel bag on his shoulder too, dragged with a slightly tired frown.

Selene returned the cigarette to the agent and moved to reach the relative, carrying her fingers around the short handles to grab the bag and free the hacker from that weight.

«Thank you», BlueDevil said, giving her an astonished look.

He and his niece had not had the opportunity or desire to speak after the quick phone call that morning. The verbal quarrel that occurred shortly after the rave still hovered between them, making the relationship between the two quieter than expected. They should have clarified themselves before the mission, but to avoid further possible disagreements they had established, without even saying a word to each other, that they would resolve the matter later.

Artair watched the girl move quickly towards the car, a faint sigh breaking his lip line. He slipped his hand into his trouser pocket to retrieve the key to the car and quickly deactivated the safety catches using the remote control.

Adam threw the cigarette butt on the ground after having inhaled two quick puffs, stepping on it under a boot to turn it off while recovering the duffel bag carried by him; he turned around the car to open the trunk in total autonomy, remaining with his left hand raised on that small portion of the door.

Selene moved up to the ex-SWAT to place the bag of BlueDevil next to Jensen's, a quick look at the agent's face before moving to the side of the vehicle, settling in the back seat without saying anything else.

The journey by car was quiet, an hour and twenty minutes divided between an initial urban environment and subsequent areas of the open countryside down the D11.

Selene immediately took earphones and vu-phone back to return to listen to her favorite music and to avoid hearing questions and answers from the two men in the front seats. She also wanted to convey, through her silence, how much she needed to remain confined between her thoughts, mentally reviewing all the action plans, maps and information obtained, and examining possible scenarios to best complete the mission.

When Artair stopped the car in the middle of the forest in that region of the Czech Republic, darkness completely enveloped them for a few moments before the hacker turned on the roof light.

The girl slipped her vu-phone and earphones back into her jacket pocket after turning off both devices, opening the nearest door to get out. She got rid of the jacket in silence, the cold evening air that struck her quite cruelly; however, her body reactivated itself with renewed energy in feeling the skin under her robe reacting to that icy temperature, an automatic response of her advanced metabolism.

Adam also took off his coat, taking calm steps towards the trunk and lifting the door of the rear compartment shortly after while he was flanked by McTavish.

Despite the darkness, he could easily observe the expressions of the two people in his company, noticing in BlueDevil a deep wrinkle furrowed his forehead, his lips stretched in a straight line, and seeing instead in the man's niece a quiet but not completely relaxed look, an austere and sure composure to which the agent was not used at all.

All three were prepared in front of the open duffel bags: the two transmitters brought by Jensen were worn by the two Scots to test their correct position, while the agent began to wear the armor vest, hooking the buckles where necessary and tightening the points where the upper parts had to adhere to the bust to ensure total immobility of the garment — an all too pleasant adherence that attracted Selene's intrigued gaze. He also wore a belt with a holster and pouch, finally taking the stun gun out of his bag along with ammunition, two biocells and a multi-tool to be used only in extremely rare cases.

«Cute», muttered Selene, tilting her head in a careful gesture, a slight raising of an eyebrow that suggested a much less innocent mental comment. «Is there anything of my size equally sexy?»

Artair let slip a puff halfway between fun and exasperation, finding in that question an attempt to ease the tension and mentally pinning down his niece's opinion about it — did she really find the agent's appearance sexy? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Adam gave her a quick look from behind the shields, finishing sealing the last cases with proven hand movements.

«I'll see what I can do for Christmas», he replied, indulging her.

Once they were ready, they remained silent for a moment while McTavish retrieved his bag to place it inside the car, on the passenger seat.

«See you guys on the other side of the structure. At Lake Výskyt», BlueDevil said, taking a long look at both of them.

Selene nodded in response, raising her hands over her neck to lift the elastic fabric over her nose and to make the rest adhere around her hair, finding the perfect tension not to feel it slipping away from her forehead, the bun underneath which slightly deformed the connotations of her nape in an almost grotesque way.

Adam replied to the man with a nod and then waited for the young girl, the usual inscrutable expression on his face much more overshadowed by the darkness of the woods. He watched her complete that sort of preparatory ritual while covering the female fingers with gloves secured to the sleeves of her black suit, almost intrigued by how she stretched her extremities to make the protective fabric adhere better.

They looked at each other, a single gesture of understanding exchanged exclusively between the man and the girl. When they both knew it was time to set off, they did not hesitate a second longer.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

If Jensen had had any doubts about the visual abilities of Artair's niece, he had to reconsider himself with renewed amazement in those precise moments in which they overcame tree roots hidden by darkness or low rather thick hedges.

Selene was moving so quietly and so fast that it totally deceived the senses of the potentiate, making him doubt several times that she was keeping the same pace.

It was a feeling that put a subtle form of tension on him, because it was not easy to surprise him like that. Perhaps the young woman sensed the slight discomfort of the man, as she began to move around generating some more noise, staying almost always next to him. It was an equally disconcerting idea, which caused him the sordid certainty that Selene was extremely attentive to all the reactions of the ex-SWAT.

They walked for at least another fifteen minutes before hearing Artair's voice in their ears. The distant _presence_ of the hacker made the move much easier to manage, allowing Jensen to focus properly on the mission.

« _I'm at the lookout point, I'm starting to connect to your signals to tell you how much distance left._ » A brief silence anticipated the rest, leaving no doubt about what the hacker was doing at that moment. « _You are near the first fence._ »

The man and the girl overcame the obstacle with a leap, a simple wire mesh not even seven feet high, and continued on the path still surrounded by vegetation. When they reached the deforested area, they could observe from a distance the glow of the structure that stood for about four levels, the first floor just covered by the perimeter wall, if observed from their position.

« _It was a Belltower barracks, but from the data obtained it seems now obvious to me to consider it a subsidiary headquarters of Versalife_ », said the hacker.

Selene glanced at the night sky, noting for the first time, far from the trees, how the moon created enough glare with its reflected light. She went back to the distant building and then took a look at Jensen, to which he replied with an almost imperceptible nod.

She had found him intent on scrutinizing her in the dark, the shields that somehow attracted the few light sources so far away. Although both of them concealed part of their faces, details of their expressions, the girl had the feeling that she could see something more than the mere concentration in the agent; and she was equally certain that the man could see in her absurdly obvious and necessary feelings in that situation — an unusual and sudden field alchemy that seemed to surprise them gradually.

They resumed the pace after that quick stop, moving carefully and reaching the second fence in a matter of seconds. The perimeter wall, in that case, was much more functional, about seventeen feet high; to overcome it they had to get closer to the entrance area, near a perimeter cabin.

Selene was the first to enter the ventilation duct that Artair had indicated in the plans documents, followed by Adam after a few moments. The young woman was definitely faster than him in that narrow space, slipping nimbly out of his sight after arriving at the other end.

The man reached her while she was hiding behind a large, turned-off generator, her blue gaze taking on greenish shades thanks to the simple yellow path lights placed on the lower sections of the walls of the room. With a nod of her hand, she pointed to the nearby metal door.

«There are two guards», she said quietly, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric that partly covered her face.

The agent activated the smart vision to check in turn, confirming with a gesture of consent. «I'll take care of it.»

Selene indulged him, letting him go on. She observed him remaining hidden in the shadow zone generated by the large machinery, following the man with her gaze as he moved silently towards the door, a moment motionless to evaluate any variable before making a slight noise against the door with his carbon hand. The door opened inwards, on the opposite side to the one where Adam had found temporary shelter; the two men did not even have time to cross it, since Jensen shot them down with a quick sequence of silent and efficient hits.

The agent better dragged the unconscious bodies inside without any difficulty, looking at their uniforms with a gloomy expression as Selene approached to check that there were no other people beyond the access.

«Tarvos», he commented, the tone not so surprised.

«It makes sense», replied the young woman. «They practically took the place of Belltower after the Incident and after the events of that scandal.»

The man nodded, beckoning her to continue.

For a single moment, his mind wandered on the memory of Rifleman Bank Station: it was obvious what kind of scandal Selene was referring to, but it was intimately unusual to remember that it was thanks to his direct intervention that the place had been exposed to the public pillory.

Absurdly enough, he found similarities with what he was doing at that moment with the young lady at his side.

Once they got back on track, they were able to carefully study the rest of the external environment between the boundary wall and the building. In that area of the perimeter, a large space where the ground still gave way to some vegetation, dotted here and there with uncultivated bushes and a few solitary trees, they had to move with greater caution to avoid the movement of some of the patrols present, fortunately only isolated persons easy to avoid.

When they reached the point from which they had planned to enter they found an unwelcome surprise waiting for them: the windows on the ground floor had been completely walled up.

Adam took the precaution of probing them for several seconds with the smart vision to detect some fortuitous structural weaknesses, but his research was absolutely inconclusive.

«McTavish, the accesses from which we thought to enter are not accessible, and we have already checked almost three-quarters of the entire building. We need to find another entrance», said the agent, looking around while he and BlueDevil's niece remained bent against the wall.

« _Give me a moment._ » The hacker let slip a verse of disappointment. « _There is no other entrance, if not the main one, and as you can imagine it will be well guarded._ »

Selene raised her head to look up, recalling in her memory the map of the place and considering a safe way to reach the area she was thinking about.

«If I remember correctly, there should be windows a little higher up on the south side of the building.»

« _Yes, but to access from there you will have to climb, and from that part of the structure you will have to move on a slightly longer path._ »

Adam responded quickly, nodding his head to the girl immediately to _tell her_ silently that he approved of her proposal. «It is not a problem. We're moving on.»

They took up the pace again by moving away from the wall so as not to stay too close to the building, continuing slightly away from each other. They saw in the long-distance a larger number of Tarvos guards, five men who controlled the main entrance, three in front of the big closed door and two more moved towards the sides. A surveillance camera was presumably watching them without any problems, and this made it absolutely out of the question to stun them.

They continued following the cover of the little vegetation, suddenly finding themselves in the path of a guard; they both blocked themselves against a tree, Selene with her back to the bark and Adam in front of her, ready to activate the cloaking system if necessary.

The man made to her the sign to remain in absolute silence, lifting a finger in front of his mouth while she stared at him, her blue eyes probing his serious expression accentuated by the presence of the shields. She stopped to observe for a few moments the way the carbon fingertip leaned on the lips surrounded by the beard, lingering on them without being able to avoid it.

Adam did not lose a single fluctuation in the girl's gaze, aware in turn that Selene was staring at him with more curiosity than expected, but as soon as he saw her nodding, he noticed how ready she was to focus on the situation.

The guard leaned against the tree on the opposite side of them, the sound of a lighted lighter followed shortly after by a long and bored sigh.

Selene took Adam's wrists in her hands, staring him in the _hidden_ eyes with her head slightly bent in a nod of understanding. She was asking him to let her do it, she was asking him to trust her.

The ex-SWAT let his robotic fingers against the trunk, tightening the grip on it while he was forced to reduce the distance a bit. The young woman found a firm grip on the mechanical limbs and used leverage to hoist herself on them, _between them_ , while clinging to the first available branch above their heads without bumping into the ex-SWAT in any way.

She had been as agile and fast as he had ever seen her, slipping away unexpectedly and surprisingly, _using him_ practically as a handhold to climb on.

Selene moved quickly between the branches of the tree, rotating upside down on another branch much lower than the one on which she had climbed and remained for a long moment suspended perpendicularly on the Tarvos man. She grabbed the poor unfortunate guard in her hands, making him bump his head on the bark, and finally descended to accompany the unconscious body to the ground.

Adam looked around while sincere that no one had seen them, putting out with a shoe the cigarette that had fallen on the grass. He continued to keep an eye on the situation while the girl hid the soldier in a nearby bush, waiting for him.

Once they returned to move south, Jensen exhaled barely more relaxed.

«When you told me this morning that you had some pretty useful climbing skills, I didn't think they were that advanced», he commented in a low voice.

She gave him a look that was a bit difficult to decipher without being able to see the whole face, but something suggested that she was subtly surprised by the implied compliment.

«And you haven't seen anything yet», she replied without a precise tone, the voice slightly muffled by the fabric. «I honestly didn't think you'd let me do it.»

«What?», the agent asked, letting himself go at that momentary exchange of jokes. «Let you stun a guard or use me as a _ladder_?»

Selene couldn't help but let slip a weak, amused puff, shaking her head in a gesture of fake denial.

«Don't make me laugh, Jensen. It's so unprofessional.»

The ex-SWAT barely sneered; even though the shields didn't give her a chance to see his _alien_ eyes, she easily guessed through that lip movement an equally hilarious expression.

When they both heard Artair's voice in their ears, they _remembered_ they were not completely alone. « _This morning_?»

«Focus, uncle. Are we going in the right direction?»

Selene's question definitely saved them from a conversation they could not have at that moment.

« _Ah... Uhm... Yes, you should already be able to see the windows on the upper level from your position._ »

It was easy to return near the building, avoiding only another guard who did not even approach the structure _thanks_ to his predetermined route.

The windows at the top were only two, recessed into the wall and with a protruding portion of concrete to act as a sill, both closed with metal gratings rather simple and rudimentary. They were not panoramic openings, but pragmatic points of light obtained at the time of construction of the barracks a little higher than the most common windows.

Selene looked at the wall carefully, looking for even the slightest hint to hold on to in order to find support and climb. Even if she jumped, she would not reach it, her limit was just under nine feet and those accesses were definitely beyond her reach.

Adam realized in turn that even with the Klipspringer jump mod he would not make it to the gap, and using Icarus Dash required a rather ingenious precision, as well as causing some _dangerous_ noise and glare.

He watched the girl lay one hand on the wall, her gaze turned to an imprecise point on her left as she seemed to think. When she turned to look at him, Jensen realized that perhaps she had found a solution.

«You'll have to push me», advanced Selene.

The ex-SWAT raised an eyebrow from above the shield, staring at her. «Push you?»

«Yes, you are strong enough to allow me to stretch my jumping skills. I will reach the grating, I will hook my legs to it, put myself upside down, and then you will have to jump to reach my hands. At that point, I will pull you up.»

The man remained a moment in silence, doubtful. «You make it easier than it seems. How do you plan to help me reach that height? You will risk falling if you don't hook well, and I certainly don't weigh that little.»

The young woman looked at him with a perplexed glare, shaking her shoulders in amazement and pointing at him with a movement of her hand from top to bottom to _enclose_ in that gesture all the figure of Jensen.

«Note that I can lift several hundred pounds by myself. You weigh about one hundred eighty-seven pounds, I remind you that I have already lifted you.»

« _Really? And when did it happen?»_ , asked Artair, the voice uncertain.

Adam shook his head, freeing his throat from a verse of disappointment. He didn't want to think how easily the young woman had lifted him the night before. And he didn't want to know how precise she had been in getting so close to his real body weight.

«Forget it, McTavish», replied the agent in a quick tone.

When he turned to Selene he moved against the wall, perpendicular to the windows, lowering his hands and crossing them in front of him just below the crotch of his pants. The young woman placed her fingers on his curved shoulders, already lifting a shoe and placing the tip of it between his palms, looking for a good grip.

The two looked at each other for a moment; she nodded readily, waiting to see the agent do the same, but Jensen instead let a quick sigh slip.

«You're not going to leave me here, are you?», did the agent with a serious voice.

He couldn't see her smile because of the fabric covering her face, but her blue eyes were enough to understand how much BlueDevil's niece was amused by those words.

«Man of little faith», Selene teased him.

Jensen shook his head, the gaze concealed by the shields that still gave her an exasperated look. He nodded and puffed at the same time, feeling the pressure of her fingers on his shoulders, above the breastplate, and prepared to lift her with more force than necessary.

Selene took advantage of that rapid momentum, a second before being guided upwards, to approach the man's stooped face and snap a quick, sonorous kiss on his forehead, the fabric of her dress obviously covering her lips.

Even if caught decidedly unprepared, Adam did not interrupt his thrust and lifted her without any problem, receiving with a bit of delay the brazen action of that _little girl_.

Despite that absolutely inappropriate gesture in a similar situation, the movements of both were precise and calculated, silent and functional.

Selene first clung to the windowsill and then to the bars, her feet slipped only a couple of times before applying the right abdominal tension to avoid that problem.

She observed the dark environment of the room that extended beyond the passage, making sure that there was no one there. The glass was already broken in some places, but she preferred to wait for the agent to come up before deciding how to move. She lifted her knees against her torso, trying to climb up as far as possible without losing her grip.

Adam, several feet down, had only an overweening desire to reproach her properly for that absolutely stupid kiss — but he would never have admitted, especially to himself, how pleasant it was, even if fleeting and barely perceptible.

Looking at her with that surly frown, he suddenly had a rather detailed view of her black suit that outlined her buttocks with merciless precision, forcing him to swallow quickly and turn his _alien_ gaze elsewhere several times.

_Does it have to be so tight, that tactical vest?_

The young woman had no difficulty in requiring a rather _flexible_ movement from her body, slipping her shoes over the bars and hooking onto them with both ends; she finally slipped back, upside down, with her arms down the wall, the pressure of the edge of the sill against her calves to give her a slight hint of pain that she ignored easily.

Jensen waited for her to nod again before jumping. He felt the artificial muscles pump latent energy into his cybernetic legs and snapped vertically, immediately feeling the grip of Selene's hands around his wrists, in turn squeezing his carbon fingers around those of the girl.

He heard her inhale a little louder several times while she leveraged her abdominals to get him up, guiding him to find support first on the lower edge of the windows and then a little higher, on the nearest bar.

When Adam felt sure not to fall, he managed to put one knee on the windowsill, settling into a more stable position to help the girl get back on the same level. He took her hand protected by the glove and pulled her beside him without wasting time.

Thanks to her more minute body, Selene was able to creep closer to the opening, the need to massage her wrists with her fingertips for a few moments while she melted her joints with a few short snaps of bone.

Adam noticed the gesture, observing her. «Are you hurt?», he asked, the tone just astounded.

The hacker's niece sighed. «I am fine. Don't worry.»

He remained silent, staring at her while waiting, and at that point, she could do nothing but let a quick sigh slip by, subtly resigned.

«The grip of your fingers just made my wrists a little sore, not because of your weight, but because of the force you applied.» When she realized how her words had to sound, she tried to be ironic. «Remind me not to arm wrestle you, Jensen.»

The man evaluated those words for a long moment, feeling guilty for a moment: he had not efficiently controlled the pressure of his robotic ends, accustomed to finding _inanimate_ handholds that obviously could not be affected by the power of his carbon fingers.

He shook his head, determined to ignore the feeling felt to concentrate. If he allowed himself to be led by scruples, he would have ended up thinking how many more times he would have risked hurting Selene even by simply touching her — wondering intimately why he should have had the chance to touch her again, somehow differently.

He activated the smart vision to feel _overwhelmed_ by the amount of information that that graft gave him punctually, discovering with a bit of surprise that the grating could be torn apart with a certain pressure inward.

«I push and you hold it at the right time so that it doesn't collapse», he proposed in a serious tone.

Jensen waited for the girl to return with her hands on the metal, making sure that she tightened the rod between her fingers. He applied more force than expected and this caused a series of more or less obvious consequences.

The grate shattered the already damaged glass, generating a distinct noise that, as expected by both, had certainly alerted someone, just as the agent found himself between his fingers the bars along with some portion of the wall.

By pure instinct, he pushed himself together with it, suddenly leaning out of the gap, but Selene lost grip with her knees and tumbled forward in turn. She was dragged by the weight of the man for simple and stupid distraction, cursing herself mentally for letting herself be fascinated by the way the man had torn that obstacle apart.

They both hissed an exhaustive " _shit_ " when they realized they were falling into the dark room.

Jensen, despite the very little time available, managed to turn in mid-air between the grate and the girl to get between her and the floor of the room. The young woman landed directly on the agent's abdomen, bumping her knee on the hard concrete and some shards of glass, but without any serious damage thanks to her innate resistance and her tactical vest. She heard the man huffing for the sudden _load_ on him and the blow on his back after absorbing also the fall of BlueDevil's niece.

Selene hoisted herself on her hands almost instantly, using a few fingers on Adam's chest. When she realized that she was practically sitting on the belly of the ex-SWAT, he gave her a look impossible to decipher.

«Comfortable?», did the agent, lips tightened in a severe line and an eyebrow raised beyond the lens.

« _Hey, guys, everything okay? The guards are a bit alerted_.»

Artair's voice was audible to both of them, quickly bringing them back to the mission.

Selene barely sighed, taking a few moments to stare at Jensen, the gloves that did not allow her to run with her nails kept deliberately short on the agent's combat armor. She, in turn, raised an eyebrow in a nod of understanding, knowing that it was perfectly visible.

«Yes, uncle. Everything is okay. I'm just noticing now», and she let slip a faint verse of amused approval, «how pleasant it is to be on top.»

« _I beg your pardon?_ »

The ex-SWAT shook his head, his mouth was slightly open for the words just spoken by the girl.

He could only observe her blue eyes, finding in them a truly inopportune hilarity, and perceive the pressure of the young lady's body against his belly. He had certainly not foreseen that that cheeky _little girl_ would take the liberty to tease him even during the infiltration.

«We managed to get in, McTavish», he replied, pushing her a little to the side without much ceremony.

Selene snickered openly under the elastic fabric that covered her face, getting up without adding anything else.

« _Perfect. You better get out of that room. Some guards are about to converge on your position._ »

Selene gave a hand to the man to help him get up, but he ignored her gloved fingers and got back on his own.

They studied the environment for a few moments, a room packed with office tools and a few desks, before heading for the only door. When they were ready to open it, they knew they had to move with renewed caution.

Even if they had found adequate information on that part of the structure, the main idea was to minimize the time spent there. Having to improvise a bit on the route did not particularly appeal to them, but they had no other choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some time ago I created a personal blog on Tumblr for this story, where in addition to posting occasional headcanons on Adam&Selene, I also publish a lot of material on Deus Ex/Adam Jensen, from the fanvideos found on Youtube to my images saved during my gameplays.  
> I leave you the link: [Deus Ex: War Paint](https://deusexwarpaint.tumblr.com).


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Selene's first real mission in the field, between swinging collaboration, unexpected trust and overly cumbersome personal thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Presence of strong and/or vulgar language, introspective scenes at times gloomy and violent, references to sex and in a very light form to rape.  
> I'm posting this chapter with a bit of rush, so there are surely translating errors.  
> Hope you can help me find them. ;)
> 
> Song for you: [On Melancholy Hill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MnyyOY5ZTY)

Once in the corridor, Adam opened the first available door to allow both of them to slip into the half-light of another room, letting Selene go first. They literally avoided for a handful of seconds the small group of Tarvos soldiers who appeared from a not-so-distant corner, while the man was still busy to ajar the light wooden door.

The girl held on to the wall on her back, directly at the side of the doorway, watching all of Jensen's micro-movements very carefully; only through him, she could understand in advance if any of the soldiers were willing to enter that room as well.

The agent held his head slightly tilted forward, a clear sign of concentration, both hands on the door in a vaguely defensive gesture. He could hear almost all the words pronounced by those men and when he finally revealed a certain relaxation of the jaw, he also made the young woman understand that the situation had calmed down.

«We got lucky», he said, thus also informing Artair. «They suspect only a structural failure.»

Selene nodded imperceptibly, beginning to look around as soon as she, too, heard the sound of the guards walking away.

Jensen and the young McTavish had entered another studio of that level, but cabinets, shelves and desks filled with printed sheets, binders arranged with some care and just a couple of old computers on some worktops, suggested that that room was used by the staff of the facility. However, since it was an area of the building not adequately guarded, it was easy to guess that that room did not contain anything useful for the _mission_ , and the data obtained in previous days confirmed the presence of much more important information in all other sections of the place.

« _Good_ », replied BlueDevil. « _As soon as you are ready to start moving again, I will try to guide you as best I can. I remind you that the elevator to the basement is on the first floor. You will need an access card, but the guards on those levels do not have one. You will need to go to the Versalife employee wing and it is not certain that, despite the time, there is no one still at work. Also, it might be useful to get to the security server room to allow me to connect to their system and check that there are no protocols set to identify Selene's genetic code._ »

The hacker's niece moved slowly between the desks, poking around a bit while listening to the words of her relative. «Wouldn't it be better, then, that Adam and I split up?»

The question provoked in Jensen, a few feet away from her, a strong sense of unease that he hid with an inscrutable expression, the dark shields that concealed his alarmed look for that proposal.

« _What? Why?_ », asked Artair.

The agent approached the girl, staring at her from beyond the dermal grafts, his face showing a doubtful frown. «It's not a good idea to split up.»

Selene responded for a moment to his hidden glance, trying to identify the real reason why the man made such a complaint: was it the need to control her so that she would not do anything rash, or was it the need to keep her safe because he was simply worried that something might happen to her?

In one case or another, they were both hypotheses dictated by a clear lack of trust.

«We could optimize our time», she added, determined to ignore the ex-SWAT and find a possible camaraderie in her uncle — even if she didn't hope for it so much. «One of us goes to the lab area while the other one reaches the server room», she answered calmly. «Probably, for a matter of practicality, it is better that I go to get a card and you instead to the server room to allow my uncle to connect to their computers, using the signal of your infolink.»

Adam shook his head, visibly denying it. He raised a carbon hand to stop her from continuing, to metaphorically point out how much she should not even consider such a plan of action.

«No, I do not agree», continued the agent.

« _Selene is not all wrong_ » _,_ McTavish surprised him, causing a subtle sense of alarm at that prospect in the ex-SWAT, « _but Jensen is right. It's best you don't separate. Assuming that in the time it took Adam to get to the security room and for me to put in place the controls on their computer protocols, you, Selene, might run into some system that recognizes your genetic code, and you'd be alone to deal with it._ »

A brief pause of the hack did the rest, leaving well understood what his main concern was.

« _As useful as it is to optimize time, separating you two means ignoring the reasons that led us to ask Adam for help_.»

The girl barely nods, sighing with a hint of resignation and raising her hands in a sign of surrender, two quick steps towards an imprecise point in the room.

«The reason that led _you_ , uncle», she answered without being able to avoid it. «But all right, as you two wish.»

She turned her back, shaking her head in a clearly annoyed movement, her arms crossed over her chest as she stopped a few feet from the door, waiting there.

Jensen observed her for a moment, slowly exhaling in turn. The young woman's physical responses were so clear and obvious that he didn't even need to use the social enhancer — not that he had any intention of using it with her anymore.

Selene felt underestimated and her pride was clearly suffering. He could understand her more than well, but the young lady would have to deal with that feeling at another time.

«We have to continue», Adam told her, trying to keep a calm tone so as not to bother her further, staying at a safe distance.

BlueDevil's niece did not even look at him, simply nodding with a certain composure. «After you.»

As a first aim, they decided to reach the server room, located on the same floor where they were, but on the opposite side of their current location, much closer to the stairs.

They returned to the corridor with renewed attention, moving for several feet a few steps from the walls before meeting the first patrols, single guards who moved lazily from one space to another and most of the time stopped to chat with some colleagues in a connecting room. It was easy to avoid several, but they had to stun someone sporadically and hide them in blind spots in the hope that the others would not notice their absence.

It was Jensen who mainly dealt with those soldiers who could not be overcome without problems, sometimes without even giving Selene time to consider a much more direct approach for her: they had silently _faced_ no more than seven guards, but the young woman had only managed to knock out one, simply because Adam had been busy hitting another.

No matter how much she tried to overlook it, the girl continued to feel legitimately annoyed by that behavior. She knew that this was not the right time to let go of that obvious bothered reaction, and she was sure that Jensen sensed her frustration, but once out of there, if the man continued to manifest that attitude, she would literally send him to the hospital. Or more likely to Koller.

Many years earlier she had been overwhelmed by the same feelings when Damian Fisher had been tasked with training her, but with him she had given in with absolute willingness, ready to put aside her ego to protect him from terrible consequences — because not being able to train her would have been a problem for her teacher, not for the young woman.

With Adam, she had to engage again in something totally unexpected, earn his trust so that he would give her the space she deserved. Acting like a bitch and an irresponsible would only strengthen the refractoriness of the ex-SWAT: it wasn't the most suitable solution, even if it was difficult to keep that kind of emotional response at bay.

Her mind was crossed by that long reflection for a very quick second, a fleeting moment of pondering that Selene pushed back into the recesses of her soul with incredible promptness. She knew how to put conflicts aside, when necessary, and regained all her concentration with extreme ease, quickly focusing on the path taken.

Although she had never been there, in that place, she could recall maps and plans studied in the previous days to easily recognize and find the way to the area they had to reach.

They were near a corner, Adam placed a little further ahead to check that the next passage was free and the girl turned instead towards the portion of the corridor already passed, with the clear intent to watch their backs for simple precaution.

When she saw a door open about thirty feet away from them, her body reacted accordingly.

A Tarvos guard moved slowly and head down as he controlled the assault rifle held in his hands, a faint humming noise at the bottom of his throat confirming his total distraction.

For Selene, it was definitely precious time to move lightning fast to him, snapping quickly and hitting his face with a fist, pushing him into the room he had just come out of. When she was sure she could leave the body unconscious there, better hidden beyond a desk along with the big gun, Jensen reached her with a silent step in a couple of seconds.

The girl and the man watched each other for a moment as she lifted her shoulders in a nod of carelessness, the blue gaze that studied him to see if there were any other complaints about having acted with impeccable timing.

«He would have seen us», the young woman pointed out.

«I know. I didn't say anything», he did, denying imperceptibly with his head.

Selene stared at him for a few more moments, finally turning to the door from which they had entered, ready to resume the pace.

«Yeah, I noticed», she replied in a clearly annoyed tone.

She moved to get past him, but Adam blocked the passage, standing in front of her. If Selene hadn't had her innate abilities, she would have ended up practically on him, and in that case, it would have been yet another hit inflicted on her ego, not a reason to let herself go to inappropriate proximity.

«Hey, I know you feel like you're on a leash», Adam began without showing much through his inscrutable expression. «But think carefully about what you do and try not to get...»

Selene emitted a grumpy verse, dissolving the tension of her shoulders with a rapid movement of the arms to interrupt the unmotivated reproach of the man, a palm raised in a hasty nod.

«Jensen, you're not keeping me on a leash. I have independently agreed to follow your directives. Yours and my uncle's», she replied with a serious gaze, the blue of the irises faintly illuminated by the neon lights in the room. «But don't mistake my condescension for an alleged control over my actions, because I'll punch you again and go on alone.»

Adam tightened his lips, his hands vibrating just before closing them along his hips. He was absolutely sure that if she had wanted it, she could have disappeared from his sight in a moment after she had surely knocked him out.

«I know», replied the man in a serious voice.

«Well, then let's go», concluded the young woman with an equally authoritarian tone.

Jensen arched an eyebrow from above the shield, _sealing_ his lips between his teeth for a moment as he watched the BlueDevil's niece walk straight out. He tilted his face in a nod of denial, not so much for what Selene had told him, but rather for a decidedly inappropriate and disturbing thought that tickled his mind.

_I don't understand if her temper bothers me or fascinates me. Probably both._

Artair had thought it appropriate not to intervene, even though he had heard the entire conversation. He could perceive, despite the distance and the slightly muffled and different sound of his niece's voice, how annoyed she was by the situation, but at the same time how willing she was to collaborate without rebelling.

He also decided to ignore the obvious thoughtful conclusion extrapolated from Selene's words: she and the ex-SWAT must have confronted each other the night before, not only verbally. He was not really surprised but wondered how that confrontation had ended. Part of himself was not sure he wanted to add further details to a latent sensation he had been experiencing for several days.

Something told him that he would not be ready to accept an absurdly unforeseen truth for him, a truth about his niece and the agent.

Adam and Selene took the step from where they had interrupted it, guided by the constant silence of that corridor. They acted as if nothing had happened, determined to ignore that faint tension between them to continue without further interruptions. They reached the server room after passing the stairway access, stopping a few steps from the wooden door.

« _Okay, usually there should be three guards in the room. To get in undetected, you could use the ventilation duct that connects that room to the adjacent room up north_.»

The ex-SWAT took one look at the young woman, standing next to him, beckoning her to go first. After entering a closet kept in extreme disarray and closing the door behind him, Selene took the trouble to move a shelf to reveal the presence of the metal door in the middle of the wall.

She crept into the duct without waiting any longer, moving inside and stopping after a few feet to wait for the agent. She was tiny enough to turn around without difficulty, intent to resume the step after the man reached her, but Adam stopped her with a wave of his carbon hand.

«Let me pass first, just in case», he murmured, observing her.

The girl remained silent for a moment, understanding how much that request was dictated by yet another attempt by the agent to maintain some control over the situation.

«It was better to say it before, then», she mumbled.

«I know», he admitted without ceasing to study her slightly frowning blue look, «and I'm sorry.»

With those words, he was not only referring to the fact that he practically had to pass over her in that narrow space, even though she was small enough in build not to cause him any problems in that regard. Jensen was taking advantage of that verbal exchange and of that relatively safe place to implicitly apologize to her for the way BlueDevil and he were _controlling her_.

Selene exhaled quickly, trying to ignore the sincerity perceived in the voice of the ex-SWAT. She slipped lying on her back to allow him to overcome her, squeezing as tight as possible to leave the man enough room on the sides of her body for the carbon hands and knees well covered by tactical pants.

Adam moved without much difficulty, even rather quickly and without touching her in an invasive way; he barely touched her with a shoe over the edge of an arm covered by her battle dress, just above the elbow curve at rest. When he was almost on the verge of overcoming her completely, the young woman let slip a verse of appreciation for that closeness.

«You know? I have to say that, actually, it's not really a problem... _On the contrary_.»

The ex-SWAT shook his head, a corner of his lips raised without any control: he didn't want to show her how much he was amused by her behavior and didn't want to feed such an attitude in such a risky situation.

The light kiss that she had given him on the forehead was abundantly part of the unnecessary risks of that mission — and continued to present itself in his thoughts in a harassing way.

He simply continued without turning around and without waiting for her to move behind him. He heard her get back on track after a few seconds, determined to ignore the comment Selene added shortly afterward.

«Yeah, I have to say I don't mind at all. Interesting visual», the feminine tone muffled and low, clearly allusive.

Being aware that that cheeky _little girl_ had just made a very vague appreciation — probably also to hide it from the perpetually listening hacker — on his ass, left Adam rather astonished. Yet part of himself continued to feel amused and...

_And what, damn it? Damn flattered? Really?! I'm flattered that a twenties girl is looking at my ass, letting me realize that she likes it?_

As much as he wanted to deny it, being aware that he aroused that bizarre fascination in Selene made him irreparably calm and relaxed.

For an awfully long time, he hadn't even been able to look at himself in a mirror because of his augmentations. It was absurd to notice how unexpectedly he suddenly felt attractive again just because a _little girl_ showed herself inappropriately interested, flirty and confident.

Jensen couldn't help but ask himself an absolutely sensible question. The hell is his mind telling him?

He found concentration and readiness before reaching the end of the duct.

From beyond the metal hatch grilles, he could observe the server room, immediately identifying the presence of five armed guards. The thought that they were more than expected made him suspicious for a moment, but they had no time and no way to wait for some of them to leave — always provided they moved elsewhere.

The agent opened the conduit, extending his left arm to load four Tesla ammo while pulling the stun gun out of the holster with his right hand. When the corresponding number of guards complained about the strong electric shock, collapsing to the ground shortly afterward, the fifth soldier reacted disoriented for those seconds enough to allow the man to take aim and fire a single silent shot, putting the weapon away just before entering the room at all.

He approached the console as Selene slid over the gap at the bottom, whistling with interest in a classic _verse_ of approval.

«Wow! Jensen and his aces up his sleeves. Or perhaps it is more correct to say in the arms.»

Adam ignored the phrase with inscrutable nonchalance — ephemeral nonchalance, if he had to be totally honest.

Selene not only provoked him with a certain frequency with allusive jokes and absurdly shameless attitudes, but she didn't even set herself a limit to so openly ironic about his grafts. Even if at first glance it must have been something that might have bothered him, he actually detected in her the playful attempt to make him more willing to joke about something that the man had deeply _hated_ about himself — and she must have sensed it somehow.

To reach that obvious reflection did the rest, leaving him intimately astonished: Selene was studying him, she was understanding him with disarming ease. Selene wanted to approach him in a surprising way, in the most natural and spontaneous way possible.

It was something that left him much more shaken than expected.

He thanked the providential presence of the shields, conveying the necessary certainty that the young girl could not properly identify the feelings that crossed his face. He only gave her a hidden glance and returned to the computer station, activating the screen to focus on what was to be done.

«Artair, it's all yours.»

« _Perfect, give me some minute._ »

Selene just twirled her blue eyes with amusement, moving silently towards the only door after a quick nod of dissent.

Jensen obviously could not see it, perhaps not even intuit it, but a small pout had matured on her face hidden by the fabric, which had blossomed when Adam had resumed his professional attitude with efficient diligence, only to ignore her and, consequently, to keep her at a distance.

She opened the door a little bit to check that there were no surprises in the area, standing there waiting, alert and cautious, determined to focus on the rest so as not to think about how subtly disappointed she was.

Adam stared at her for almost the entire time, the line of the female profile, rendered in little detail by the portion of elastic fabric, was facing the space beyond the door, to the corridor.

In the light of the neon lamps, he could better observe the workmanship of her battle vest, studying it with more interest to discover a tailoring work decidedly accurate, but not particularly avant-garde. Perhaps he could really consider the idea of letting someone trustworthy manufacturing her something more protective, but equally lightweight — the young woman's head, even if covered, was not preserved from bullets or explosions.

He knew who to turn to in Prague, since he could not ask Interpol of course, but the work would not be free of charge and thinking even for a moment to pay for it out of his own pocket was definitely unusual. He was also sure that, in any case, Selene would not be enthusiastic about such a proposal.

If he had started to read better between the lines, if he was already able to grasp much of her character and her way of thinking, he could be sure that spending several thousand credits for her would have annoyed her. She would certainly have demanded to repay him despite her economic situation was not the most stable, as she herself had admitted a few days earlier.

Was Jensen really thinking about doing this?

With a sigh held between his tight lips, he said yes. He insisted on repeating that it could be a symbolic Christmas present, but he knew very well that it was something else — the fear that she might get hurt in some fight, the bland attempt to do something more useful to help her.

The young woman took a look in his direction, staring at him for a few moments before returning to observe the corridor.

Selene had perceived the gaze of the man lingering longer than expected, but she was too focused on outside noises to wonder why he was scrutinizing her so insistently.

« _Guys, I'm done_ », Artair began in her ear through the earpiece. « _I deactivated the surveillance cameras that you will find on your path, but there is something that does not convince me about the basement._ »

Adam moved in the direction of the girl, beckoning her to close the door to muffle the noise of the conversation.

«What is it about?», he asked.

The hacker's niece complied with the request by accompanying the door silently, but remained close to it, listening carefully to the words of the relative.

« _There is a large amount of energy converging at a point in the basement. It seems to respond to the demands of some electrical device that seems to be out of calibration. It could be a fault, or some obsolete or malfunctioning equipment_.» BlueDevil paused, added the rest shortly afterward. « _I will continue to study the situation, while you continue to the labs. Remember: fifth floor._ »

«Keep us informed», confirmed the agent, a wrinkle of apprehension on his forehead.

Selene nodded in response, answering, in turn, to be heard by BlueDevil. «Lead the way, Jensen.»

Adam gave her a curious look hidden by the shields. He wondered if she kept calling him by his last name when she returned serious and concentrated, or if it was something else, that subtle form of disagreement caused by the fact that Artair and he were giving her little freedom of action.

A corner of his lips lifted without him being able to control it, a faint smile perfectly visible to her, who shook her head slightly, wrinkling her dark eyebrows in a questioning nod.

Selene was obstinate and persevering, with a subtle aversion to the roles of authority: _fuck_ , how much did Adam recognize himself in that challenge attitude held at bay by simple self-control?

«Let's go», he did simply, enclosing in that one word an invitation not to engage in further discussion.

The young woman followed him with her eyes until Jensen walked past her to open the wooden door, picking up the pace a moment before the ex-SWAT disappeared beyond the doorway.

They reached the stairs just over a minute later, continuing to the upper levels and taking care to move nimbly without being noticed by the few guards. The deactivated cameras turned out to be extremely useful, as from one floor to the next there were several willing to control those specific areas.

When they got to the fifth floor, they snuck into the first room on their right, following Artair's suggestion: from there, they would find the access to an air duct that would allow them to move more quietly.

Jensen opened the little door hidden under a rectangular table on which medical materials and tools were placed. He was almost about to slip into the narrow passage before taking a look at the girl, finding her absorbed in staring at the objects on the shelf.

The covered face that left only her blue eyes visible did not give him a complete understanding of her expression, but that was the same look that the young McTavish had shown on a couple of occasions many hours before, while telling him what had happened to her when she was thirteen. Probably even the unmistakable smell of hospital brought back terrible memories, and in a pure burst of empathy, Adam couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive.

«Hey», he called her back in a calm tone, slowly extending a hand to touch her at the height of an elbow.

Selene closed her eyes for a moment before responding to eye contact with the agent.

She knew that the man was about to ask her if she was all right, but she nipped that question in the bud, lifting two gloved fingers in front of the ex-SWAT's mouth, without touching him, and raising the other hand over her, against the ear containing the earpiece, finally denying with her head.

She didn't want Artair to get suspicious and worried.

Adam then hesitated for a moment, scrutinizing her for a few more moments before nodding and moving again. He bent down to enter the duct and moved enough to allow the girl to do the same, waiting for her while she closed the hatch.

The small passage divided after about thirty feet towards three different directions; the agent stopped, pointing out the _problem_ to the girl behind him.

«Artair, we're in the duct, but it branches off into several paths», Jensen said.

« _Right, unfortunately, I can't tell you where you might find a badge. You'd better try to move around by intuition, but the first place I'd look is the locker room. You will reach it by following the road on the left._ »

«Let's start there, then», replied Adam, picking up the pace.

When they reached the end of that part of the duct, they found themselves exposed in a corridor, the locker room door about fifteen feet away from their position. They moved silently towards the doorway, the ex-SWAT who checked through the smart vision if there was any presence inside.

Once in the room, both sure to have to act as quickly as possible, they opened and closed almost all the lockers without finding what they were looking for. Adam used the function of his retinal prostheses again to probe the surrounding environment, indicating to Selene a biocell at the bottom of a compartment much closer to her.

Once she took the object in her hands, the girl approached the man with the obvious intention of handing it to him. Jensen took a quick look at her from behind the shields, finally extending an arm to take the device in total tranquility, but the young lady moved her fingers away in a quick gesture, her blue gaze showing expectation.

«What?», the man asked, his eyebrows frowned and his head tilted back slightly in a surprised nod.

«What do you give me in return?», Selene answered.

The amused eyes hinted a cheerful smile on the lips hidden by the elastic fabric, together with the physicality of the female body that showed an equally playful attitude.

Adam exhaled, tilting his face to one side in a barely exasperated gesture — he would never admit how much he wanted to indulge her in that playful exchange.

«Really? Is this the right time?»

« _What's going on?_ », BlueDevil asked, the tone slightly perplexed by infolink and transmitter.

Jensen waited a moment, shaking his head and still peering at the young woman with that severe frown.

«Nothing, McTavish. Is there any news from that excess energy in the basement?», Adam did as he moved just one step to catch the biocell in a somewhat _overbearing_ motion.

The girl took a step away from him to prevent him from getting any closer, letting him understand only by looking at her how much she was amused by that absurd situation between them.

« _No, not yet_ » _,_ admitted Artair with a concentrated voice.

«All right, we're going back to the duct. We haven't found _anything_ » _,_ added Jensen, with some emphasis on the last word.

He bent his face towards her in a gesture once again exasperated, bringing his arm back along his body and finally turning around to ignore the young woman's behavior.

Selene moved quickly to flank him before he could reach the doorway, giving him the biocell with an accommodating nod. She saw him hesitate for a few seconds, the silent question in his thoughts making him ask if she still intended to _play_ like that, but, in the end, Adam calmly pocketed the device, precisely because she had left it to him without repeating the request.

Jensen was about to open the door when a noise of footsteps in the corridor followed by a slight chatter made him stiffen. He moved quickly in front of BlueDevil's niece, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her into an empty corner immediately to his right. He activated the cloaking system while the magnetic conduction of the graft spread to hide the girl as well.

For Selene, it was incredibly bizarre not being able to see the agent anymore, except for a slight distortion of the environment in front of her, and instead feel his carbon fingers press just above her elbows. It was equally incredible, bowing her face a little, not recognizing in any way the upper part of her female torso, but at the same time perceiving the closeness of Jensen's abdomen against hers.

A continuous and persistent hum sharpened her senses enough to let her find the source of that sound in the man who was _blocking_ her, finally identifying in greater detail that slight distortion caused by the light reflected on Adam's almost invisible body.

The door a few feet from them opened inwards revealing two men dressed in doctor's scrubs, the Versalife logo sewn on the front pocket of their work clothes. They immediately headed to some lockers as they continued with a dialogue that seemed to have begun several minutes earlier.

«By the way, did you hear about the window on the third floor?»

«Yes, this place is falling apart. It's absurd to have to work under such conditions.»

«Tell me about it. Night shifts are exhausting and the dormitory is not at all comfortable for my insomnia problems.»

«Yeah, we don't even have separate rooms. Hey, Thanksgiving is next Thursday. We could do something together, I think my wife would be happy about that.»

«Sure. Being away from New York demoralizes me.»

«And with that girl, the one who lives in the same building as you in Hradec Králové? I understood the situation could be serious. You can invite her too, if you want.»

«Oh, yeah, so serious that after we had sex two weeks ago, she disappeared. Since when are women the ones who get the occasional fuck and totally disappear in a couple of days?»

Selene bit her lower lip as she listened to that conversation, the very first impulse to snicker amusedly kept stoically at bay. She would have paid anything to see Jensen's _surely_ frowning expression when he heard those words.

«Well ... Since the small dick became a problem, I assume.»

Adam raised an eyebrow slightly, maintaining a mandatory concentration to leave to the active graft the required energy, but could not avoid hearing a faint smile rippling his lips surrounded by his beard.

Part of himself was concerned with a legitimate stream of decency at the idea that Selene was listening to that friendly and ironic verbal exchange, but the young lady, though in her early twenties, was easy enough not to be embarrassed by the nature of those comments.

«Uh-huh, funny... But instead, Taylor is still in the lab?»

«Yes, by videoconference with Dr. Veldrin.»

Throughout the dialogue, the two doctors had got rid of their scrubs, putting them in their personal compartments, taking a couple of more and more amused glances, in agreement, despite the tiredness on their faces, and then finally coming out of the locker room with a freshly dragged step, the chatter that continued in the hallway until it died down completely once they were far enough away.

Adam waited a few more moments before deactivating the graft, immediately looking for the girl's gaze. He felt her and saw her swallow, moving far enough away to let go of the grip on her arms.

«Are you okay? Are you feeling dazed?», he asked her in an attentive tone.

Selene denied with her head, moving in turn away from the wall behind her. She was caught by slight pinching of her skin, like a barely perceptible electric tingling sensation.

«I'm fine, but I admit I'm amazed, almost envious. It will be of disarming utility. Have you ever thought of giving yourself over to crime?»

The agent shook his head, crossing his arms to his chest, a corner of his lips raised in an obviously amused nod.

How the hell could he stay serious if that _little girl_ kept teasing him so maliciously?

«You're so bad», he replied, trying to keep a stern tone — with little result, since he couldn't hide the slanting smile on his face.

«Tell me something I don't know», she concluded.

She gave him a quick wink in a clear nod of understanding, followed finally by a gesture of the head to indicate that it was time to return to work.

Jensen lost only a few more minutes to check the freshly left scrubs in the locker room, intent on being absolutely thorough in his search for the elevator card. When they were back in the conduit, it was him who was much easier to find his way through the radar system, following the second hidden route and reaching one of the laboratories with the girl.

The smell of sterilized materials and ethanol was strong enough to turn both their noses up. The lights were off, only the open door to the corridor allowed the cold lighting of the neon lamps to create a bright rectangle of three feet on the floor. Tables, desks and shelves were filled with carefully sorted sheets of paper, a few laptops in stand-by which they took a quick look at, a couple of science magazines stacked next to a couple of armchairs next to the east wall.

They searched carefully between drawers and compartments without finding anything useful, finally deciding to continue in the direction of a door communicating between one room and another, avoiding the corridor where they knew there were some armed guards.

The environment was almost identical: tables, shelves, computers, chairs, some armchairs, medical instruments on worktops and printed documents.

Selene retrieved another biocell, throwing it to Adam after drawing his attention with a low whistle, and he took it off with extreme ease, observing the object for a moment before using it. The charge that he felt instantly let go in his body a widespread sense of relief and vigor.

The cloaking system did not consume much energy if he remained still, but forcing magnetic induction to extend throughout the entire body of another person who did not share even the slightest part of the technology with which he was equipped had awakened a feeling of heaviness that he had not really cared for and that would not have hindered his abilities.

He took a look at the girl, discovering her intent on observing him. Probably she had been staring at him throughout the _procedure_ , seeing her look elsewhere only when she was collecting herself to resume her search among the furniture.

Selene bent over her legs to snoop around in a couple of low drawers, opening them slowly in an attempt not to make much noise. Under the fabric of the battle vest that covered her face, she bit her lower lip, aware that she was indelicate.

It was impossible to forget how much Jensen was augmented, not with those carbon arms that shone like obsidian in response to even the slightest hint of light, but she had never been particularly close to an augmented person long enough to see an alternative use of a biocell, whose purpose was usually to load machinery and mechanical tools.

She could begin to understand, or perhaps it was better to admit that she could even imagine how Adam felt about it: some of his behaviors revealed so little of his human nature that the young woman wondered how he hadn't completely lost himself in a totally alienating and wrong sense of self.

The agent moved to another door communicating with the next laboratory, detecting with the smart vision the presence of a man, the contours of a gown barely visible while he reached the door of the other room leading to the corridor.

Selene approached as the agent opened the door to check that the room was also dark — much more than the two they had already explored, since the Versalife employee who had been there until a few minutes before had closed the access he had just left behind him.

A computer turned on illuminated slightly around, just a couple of feet away from them. The young woman moved up to the device to control its immediately accessible contents, letting the ex-SWAT continue with the search for the card facilitated by the use of his augmented eyes.

It was easy for her to notice the presence of an open video call program in the background, quickly remembering what she had heard at the end of that dialogue between those two employees in the locker room.

The last contact to which the laptop was connected was a certain Darcy Veldrin; the icon photo depicted an anonymous man in his fifties with graying hair and the collar of a lab coat barely visible just below the neck.

Selene stood on her back, carrying a hand to her chin as she pondered, looking at Adam as he poked around other shelves.

«Uncle», she said, noting the ex-SWAT look for her immediately to understand why she was contacting her relative, «could you look up Dr. Darcy Veldrin online? I have a feeling I've heard that name before.»

« _Give me a moment._ »

A not very long pause allowed Jensen to get closer to the hacker's niece, finally casting a hidden glance from the shields to the computer on the active screen.

« _He is a geneticist from Versalife, head of life sciences at the Hong Kong laboratory. In September, it was published an interview with him on the front page of the Picus Daily Standard: the title of the article was "Designing Better Humans From The Inside Out"._ »

Artair remained silent for a few more moments, those words that resounded among the three as an anticipation of the rest.

« _"Historically, the medical application of gene therapy has focused on correcting genetic diseases. Dr. Veldrin believes it can do much more. 'You won't need to chop off limbs or add parts to gain super strength, to become immune to toxins, to see infrared. We have these abilities inside us, we just need to flip the switch.' "_ »

Selene let slip a verse of anger, clenching her fists against her hips. «On the skin of people like me... Piece of shit.»

She spat the insult in her teeth as if she really wanted to address it to the scientist, looking at the laptop again after recovering immediate composure.

«He may have served the Horus Field», she added in a much firmer tone. «I don't remember his face, because I can see a picture of him here, but the name makes me ring alarm bells.»

« _I will do more in-depth research. Have you two found a badge?_ »

«No», replied Adam promptly.

In the very brief silence that followed that last word of him, he observed Selene's blue eyes as she tried to do the same with his gaze hidden by the shields, her eyebrows of their natural color, that dark brown, curled in a nervous nod — perhaps even regretted.

«On the fourth floor there is a dormitory», continued the agent, trying to quickly conclude that conversation with the hacker. «I think it makes more sense to go there now, but by now there will be employees resting.»

« _Yes, indeed. Be careful. I continue to investigate the basement level, I am circumscribing the precise point where all that electricity is required. And... Selene?_ », finally Artair called her with a careful tone, a slight hint of apprehension to ripple his voice at the moment he spoke the name of his niece.

«Yes?», she answered.

She took a long sigh immediately afterward, holding her arms to the female chest to reveal a relaxation that did not really belong to her at that moment.

« _You are not alone in facing all this_ », her uncle reassured her with sudden sweetness, a clear demonstration of affection that none of them expected to see.

The girl hesitated for a moment, remaining silent while with a nod she moved her gaze elsewhere, bowing her face so as not to be observed by Adam.

«I know», she murmured finally, leaning slightly on the shelf next to him with her buttocks. «Let's resume the search.»

Jensen, who remained in front of her, took another look at the computer before returning to the young woman.

He hadn't stopped staring at her even for an instant, more to reassure himself than to make sure that she wouldn't let herself be overwhelmed by gloomy and dragging thoughts again.

Although he could not fully _study_ the physiognomy of the face and the micro changes in expression due to the vest, he realized that he needed very little to understand her mood. When she had lowered her head, she had done so precisely because she had guessed Adam's _intentions._

The young woman avoided staring at him in turn, finding particularly _useful_ to observe the floor instead.

«Fourth floor, then?», asked the girl as she moved away from the desk and gave him her back.

Jensen didn't need anything else, her barely trembling tone of voice confirmed how Selene felt at that moment. He moved to stand beside her without any hesitation, giving her the freedom to turn towards him or not.

BlueDevil's niece had heard his footsteps immediately and perceived an unusual rush in the agent's movements. She turned to look at him with that sort of reluctant certainty, because it was obvious what was driving the man to act with such apprehension towards her.

Despite the darkness of the lab lit by the faint light of the computer screen still on, Selene's blue eyes shone with a silvery glow.

For Jensen's augmented vision it was almost too easy to see that set of details in that small portion of the female face, while the arms crossed at the chest, just below the breast, wanted to give her a semblance of control and concentration.

Adam nodded imperceptibly, swallowing shortly before letting her see his gaze. He deactivated the shields in a _tender_ attempt to give her access to the emotions that he felt, precisely to make her feel an emotional closeness that she had needed many hours before in Prague.

Selene collected herself, surprised by that sudden sense of familiarity in being able to admire Jensen's golden-green eyes in the half-light, loosening the grip of her arms tightly around her waist. She had not seen them since that morning, since they had left that abandoned building in the suburbs. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that she was deprived of them for a much longer time.

A rapid sense of uncertainty led her to wonder why the man had chosen to act in that way, even though she already knew the answer. A burst of noxious pride filled her throat at the idea that she had allowed the ex-SWAT to notice and understand her recent agitation.

She raised her hands to move the fabric that covered her face only when she knew that she really had no reason to feel so _upset_ , so doubtful that she appeared weak and easily readable.

Her instinct screamed out loud that she could give Adam a trust that she had reserved in those last years exclusively for Damian and her uncle.

She left visible also the hair gathered in the bun and the tattoo of the seahorse, giving the agent the same familiarity she had felt when looking at his _alien_ eyes.

However, the girl gave him a questioning expression, tilting her head slightly upwards when she _felt_ her heartbeat accelerated in response to that silent exchange.

She had no control over the need to wet her lips, a gesture that Adam observed with a bizarre insistence and vivid curiosity. Glimpsing the tip of the female tongue slipping quickly in its passage guided him to do the same, the feeling of having the mouth suddenly dry.

When she extended an arm to move a pair of gloved fingers to the upper edge of his combat armor, weakly hooking her fingertips on the small protruding panel just below the jugular, Jensen emulated the gesture by leading his carbon palms to her waist.

Selene invited him with a slight pressure to lean in her direction, while lifting her face in the obvious intent of bridging the distance to kiss Adam, but she stopped after not even a handful of inches, both surprised by that sudden and absolutely inappropriate proximity.

The gentle _presence_ of Jensen's fingertips was much more solid than expected, a sure and firm touch that seemed to tell her that she was not legitimized to leave, yet the agent's expression was of ineluctable uncertainty, as if he did not want to be there.

Selene shook her head and bit her lower lip after exhaling a broken verse, releasing her grip to move away from those feet necessary not to feel so overwhelmed again, covering her face with her tactical vest.

Adam had not imagined how much the tension of being in that constant alert had made their nerves so sensitive to certain urges, and made them so close to ignoring providential common sense. The same common sense that had led him to show doubt and fear, feelings that the girl had clearly perceived, feelings that had held her back.

He had the sad certainty, a wound that had never completely healed, that he hadn't felt anyone touch him or approach him in that way for a lifetime, with kindness, gentleness and the search for mutual pleasure that he hadn't experienced in an extremely long time.

Despite the impulse not to let the girl move away burn in his chest and, _paradoxically_ , in his robotic hands — the ghost of the heat of her hips still in the sensors of his artificial palms — Adam felt _safe_ again when he was distant from her.

He followed the example of the hacker's niece, again hiding his _alien_ eyes and then moving in turn towards the door, hoping to quickly forget the need to leave that place as soon as possible. Not because he was afraid to face armed guards and cutting-edge security systems, but because _being alone_ with Selene made the feeling and desire to keep her close terribly strong.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Out of sheer scrupulosity, they checked a few more labs before returning to the stairs. They had to retrace part of the route made in reverse, choosing to avoid the few guards on that floor because it was undoubtedly wiser to move like ghosts.

However, they decided not to use the ventilation ducts again, reaching the steps downhill in silence, arriving on the fourth floor while Artair's voice accompanied them in the direction of the dormitory wing of the Versalife employees.

Adam stunned with TESLA ammo only two guards in a room communicating with another corridor: it was necessary to pass it to continue towards the indicated point and, although he could move with the cloaking system active, for Selene it was necessary to clear the way. The girl remained at a perfect distance, concentrated and attentive to any noise near and far.

A part of her felt excited at the idea of having almost given in to pure natural instinct, a very strong response of her body reacting to those external urges.

Thoughts and considerations seemed to cancel themselves out at the idea of a purely physiological behavior, but her mind, her logic, had hindered her, reminding her of the presence of armed guards in the surroundings and, no less negligible detail, the direct _connection_ with her uncle.

It would have been quite embarrassing to find a plausible explanation for any sound produced by physical contact with Jensen. Not to mention that the agent himself had given no sign of agreeing to such a gesture.

The man's gaze had been intense enough to make her want to indulge that need, but his whole body had maintained a rigidity that she knew belonged to those who did not really appreciate being touched; and, thinking about it with due attention, the grip of his hands on her hips may have been provoked by the intent to hold her still to block any other action.

For a long time, Selene had felt on her skin the crawling and violent need to maintain physical distance from anyone. Only five years after the death of her parents and the rape she managed to have an orgasm on her own; and only after killing those mercenaries at the age of nineteen, she managed to have sex with a boy younger than her — a virgin in body and soul.

That first boy had shown the clumsy kindness that she had desperately needed throughout the intercourse, and after him, there was only another one a year later, when Selene was in her twenties, a few weeks before the Aug Incident. Her second and last male partner had been a boy just a little older than her, who had revealed an emotional interest too cumbersome to be fully _satisfied_ through simple sexual intercourse, an interest that the young lady had not felt able to match, from which she had simply walked away — run away — with merciless cruelty, disappearing completely from that boy's life after leaving the UK with her uncle.

She had chosen those _lovers_ after realizing that she could give them the confidence necessary to let herself be touched, to let herself go to that kind of pleasure whose existence she had ignored for years.

Only after she moved to Prague did she take more time to get to know herself better, to understand what she liked about sex and what she wanted during sexual intercourse. Since she had started living in the Czech Republic, she had begun to develop a genuine interest in girls or women with whom it was easier to indulge in casual sex — even more so since she had moved into her apartment.

Although it was an almost obvious answer to what had happened to her, she could not really evaluate the hypothesis of fucking with totally unknown men.

With Adam, she was increasingly establishing a specific exchange of trust and collaboration, characterized by rather stable and intense moments of empathic closeness. Beyond that, the agent was undoubtedly handsome, fascinating in many ways, but Selene had no intention of provoking in him the same agonizing feeling of unease and disturbance that she had felt for a long time.

It was one thing to _play_ , it was one thing to joke, it was one thing to tease him with words, but the desire to share something as intimate as sex with Jensen took on totally the wrong connotations if he felt upset or uneasy.

She would never have dared so much with anyone, precisely because she knew the feelings arising from rape and was aware of how a man could feel the same on his own skin. She could not know how the ex-SWAT fit into that context, but she had begun to read between the lines of his silences and his looks an attitude that was just as familiar to her.

She was physically attracted to Adam, she began to trust him enough to desire him sexually, she was not afraid of possible consequences of giving in to something like that, partly because she didn't think they were important and partly because she had no interest in pondering them carefully, but she knew when to let go if a possible partner didn't have the same attitude.

Perhaps she would have told him about it. Perhaps she would have asked him directly at the first useful opportunity. It'd be probably wise _to_ _remove the pebble from the shoe_ before continuing to wonder, in latent tension, whether or not she could have had sex with him.

Selene had to admit that it was bizarre how a persistent feeling of stress kept at bay by strong self-control had driven her adrift with those thoughts as she followed Jensen, emulating his movements when it was necessary to move with caution or stunning a couple of guards with disarming speed if she had the chance and if it was equally necessary to do so.

The dormitory of the Versalife employees soon revealed itself in a very large room equipped with bunk beds, about thirty, arranged with care and criterion on either side of the two longest walls. The lights turned off and the soft and continuous hissing of sleepy breaths made Adam and Selene move very carefully, finally finding a badge attached to a gown placed on a metal chair between two nearby mattresses, the owner of the badge snoozing a few steps on the opposite side.

It was Adam who got closer to the sleeping bodies, deciding to activate the cloaking system for simple safety. Selene had seen him disappear in an imprecise point of the room, following a distortion that was practically impossible to identify completely in the dark despite her visual skills; with the proper light, she would have been able to identify him more easily, but thanks to her hearing, if she concentrated enough, she could still catch the buzz generated by the activation of the graft.

She shook her head in a barely surprised nod when she saw Adam materialize before her with the badge in one hand, a corner of the male lips raised in that half-smile. The relief branched out to her blue gaze, tilting her face in a nod of appreciation, aware of how much her eyes showed understanding and enthusiasm.

They returned to the stairs following backward the route taken, finally making their way to the first floor. They ignored the second floor, the only one they had not visited because it was simply set up like a warehouse and shooting range, according to data found by Artair, and finally continued in an empty corridor to reach the elevator to the basement.

Adam made the magnetic badge stick to the card reader, the steel doors opened in a metallic whisper as Selene passed them to move in front of the internal console, waiting for the man to enter to select the floor of interest. As soon as the descent began, the ex-SWAT took a quick look at the girl.

They had not spoken a single word since they had left _that_ laboratory, except to exchange a few directives on any guards and the path to follow. The young woman had entrenched herself behind concentration and physicality that suggested a much more obvious decision.

The revelation of that attitude hit Jensen with an unexpected but equally familiar awareness: Selene didn’t like to lose control. It was a sensible response to so much trauma. The need to control everything, even herself, was perhaps not completely clear to her, maybe she ignored why she had reacted in that way; or maybe she just wanted to find in someone some warmth and physical contact, uncertain whether or not she could receive it from a man like him.

 _God_ , who better than Adam could know that melancholy need to find comfort and consolation in the arms of others? Comfort and consolation that he had stopped looking for without being able to avoid that sad detachment, swallowed up by situations that had precluded much of his humanity.

« _Hey, I was waiting for an update from you two, but your signals_ _are approaching the basement. Has something happened?_ »

When Artair's voice spread through the infolink, Adam's thoughts returned to the corner of his mind where they were to remain until the end of that _mission_ , a slight tremor in his shoulders at feeling himself dragged away from those meditations.

«Excuse us, McTavish. We simply focused on our task», said the agent, shaking his head.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a short corridor illuminated by low path lights. Selene waited for a moment, a nod of the gloved hand to let the man move first, collaborative — or perhaps she still needed to recover that lucidity that he himself had lost for very few moments.

They reached an opening that showed a large hexagonal room, also illuminated in a few places by lamps left on some desks and emergency lights on the walls, laboratory tables and shelves full of medical utensils on every visible space. On the wall on the left, there was a rather remarkable digital console, definitely avant-garde.

«Artair», Adam called him, «maybe we found the device that requires all that electricity.»

« _Yes, as soon as you two entered the room, I immediately connected to the computer. Damn, it seems to be a relocated data center of Versalife, an unofficial location, so to speak. Give me some minutes._ »

Selene had moved to check the environment in turn, leafing through a couple of documents on the shelves and between the drawers: there were simply some laboratory results, handwritten or printed notes detailing studies performed on the DNA and genetic code of various specimens. They were summary and not very deep information, but she knew very well that if something was hidden in that structure about the Hymeneal Plan, they would find it inside the computer in that room.

She moved towards the rest of the room, looking at the reinforced door from which the agent and she would have to leave. Beyond that door they would find, according to the plans provided by her uncle, a much more organized warehouse, the only connection to a sewer passage that went up to the surface near Lake Výskyt.

Selene turned to look for Adam with her eyes, finding him still near the console.

The massive and imposing figure of the ex-SWAT didn't need any further details to show his physical performance and professional preparation in the field; he was there, with his back to her, standing still in front of the computer station, his carbon arms flawlessly attracting the lights of the room, in that rigid and careful pose.

She didn't know exactly why, but she was caught by a sort of sad awareness, as if the man were miles and miles away from her, separated by an invisible and impassable wall, far and unattainable.

After a quick sigh, the young woman flanked him with that unusual uncertainty, afraid of annoying him in some way.

Jensen turned an inscrutable expression to her as soon as he saw her appear next to him, his eyes hidden by the shields that he knew were subtly surprised by that shift, but of which the girl could obviously not be aware.

From a certain point of view, he felt almost guilty of hiding so much of himself from her, when she, on the other hand, was absolutely unable to avoid the apprehension and tiredness that seemed to have suddenly caught her, despite the fabric of the vest placed around the face. It seemed strange to him, however, that Selene was even remotely fatigued, perhaps it was only a matter of simple concern, reasonable and lawful, given the situation.

Having the confirmation that Versalife was continuing to study and experiment on human DNA must surely have left her rather restless: finding in that place the name of a doctor who had perhaps been responsible for the _hell_ that Horus Field had represented for her may have stirred uncontrollable dormant sensations that she probably tried to ignore, or at least to appease.

He was able to fully understand her and this kept pushing him to get close to her, even though he knew how risky it was to give in to that incredible empathy.

Adam had no memory of what had been done to him at White Elix, but if he had been there for the first thirteen years of his life, he did not doubt that certain things would be quite in line with the events experienced by the girl.

His biological parents had sacrificed themselves to guarantee him a normal life, even though over time his existence seemed to have returned to the same terrible path.

Part of himself kept wondering if he had met Megan Reed by chance or if there was something else that brought them together. His mind had sifted through particularly painful conjectures and assumptions about his relationship with his ex, bordering on harmful paranoia. It was hard to go back to trusting someone if he suspected that the most important and lasting love story he had ever had so far had been based on a lie or a purely professional purpose.

Megan had always been focused on her work and her passion for it had finally led the agent away from his ex. His feelings for her were now a vague sensation of emptiness in his chest, a lack that had changed over time and had simply turned into " _could have been something really important_ ". He had continued to be fond of her despite the separation, but he couldn’t deny to himself how much he had wanted to return to that relationship with her during the months he had worked at Sarif Industries.

The idea of having been used made him damn melancholy, a melancholy that he didn’t want to erase in any way by finding comfort in the young girl at his side, that _terrible_ part of himself that tortured him with the hateful suggestion that he might give in, that he _should_ give in.

Some dark part of his soul made him feel almost legitimized to take and exploit all the sweetness and all the kindness of Selene, staining and branding that splendor with the fierce need to forget the sadness by fucking that _little girl_.

The brutality of that thought revealed in Jensen's mind agonizing scenarios, rapid and silent flashes of memory in which he superimposed _the love he made_ to Megan with moments of _uncontrollable emotional destructiveness_ with Selene, violent fantasies that contained all the repressed desire accumulated since he had been augmented.

Thinking about both women at the same time, but with that diametrically opposed feeling, made him feel wrong.

Selene, who remained beside him, sighed just as she observed the set of screens on the console, that silence that made her particularly sensitive to the appearance of sadly obvious _loneliness._

She took one look at Jensen just as he returned to stare at the monitors on the wall, in a quick nod that the young woman had managed to catch anyway. She bit her lower lip from under the fabric, clutching her gloved palm closer to the man for a few moments before moving it slowly towards him. She touched the carbon back of his hand in a hinted gesture and then hooked only his robotic index finger with a pair of fingertips protected by the glove.

Adam bent his face to look at his hand, intimately surprised to feel touched with such kindness and uncertainty, as if Selene was afraid of bothering him because of that implicit search for closeness, something that was related to how she had held on to him that very morning.

He was on the verge of letting himself be overwhelmed by a vague feeling of panic that tightened his throat, the terror that he might suddenly lose himself, his reason, his common sense, and claim what the _demons_ in his heart had whispered to him a few moments earlier. But when the man decided to reinforce the grip on his own initiative, he felt Selene relax, seeing her looking at him calmly.

Adam was sure that he could and wanted to be close to her in the right way, holding the girl's hand better, keeping it with extreme care, crossing their fingers in a very significant gesture, even if a bit clumsy. It was the expression of her, even if partly hidden by the fabric, that gave him relief and tranquility.

Taking and holding her hand had suddenly given him the gift of unexpected peace.

He would have liked to be really alone with the young McTavish to ask her what she was thinking, to have confirmation of his doubt, a doubt that was growing and changing, and that the ex-SWAT didn’t know how to face.

Although Selene tried in every way to appear ready and prepared, it was so obvious to sense feelings of concern and fear in her. Seeing her and knowing that she was _frightened_ , even if it was not the correct term to describe her at that moment, unleashed in Jensen the need to reassure her, and it was incredible to see how willing she was to seek that comfort in him, with a confidence that the agent knew he didn’t deserve, not with the thoughts that had crowded his mind a few moments earlier.

« _All done._ »

Artair's voice made them both jerk slightly, causing their palms to move away, as if they had been caught holding their hands by the girl's relative.

« _I start to move by car to reach the extraction point, but I keep the connection with your frequencies active. You two, get out of there._ »

Selene seemed to have waited for those last words with extreme necessity, waiting for a nod from the agent before moving in the direction of the door that she had seen before, the man who moved a few steps further back with her.

Once she passed the sliding door, Selene acquired in a few seconds a couple of information, the innate ability of analysis that gave her immediate and precise answers.

The room that was supposed to be just a warehouse of a hundred sqm was actually completely bare and freshly repainted, the walls covered with steel plates and neon lamps on the ceiling lit up, the doorway on the opposite side like an oasis in the desert.

Adam barely tilted his face at the sight of that environment, finding it equally obsolete. It was Selene who had enough readiness and reflexes to snap fast, turning towards the ex-SWAT to push him over the gap they had just passed through.

The force applied by the young girl made the agent end up against a table placed almost in the center of the hexagonal room, while the sliding door closed in front of him and was covered with a thicker coating of reinforced steel. Selene did not have time to pass through the access, remaining locked in the empty chamber, even the exit on the opposite side sealed in the same way.

Both the man and the girl ran to the door that had separated them, each on their side.

«Selene!», Jensen did in a loud voice, bringing his carbon hands on the coating to try to lift it. «Artair, harry up! Your niece is locked in the next room!»

« _What?!_ »

The young lady tried to force the passage too, looking in the direction of the agent from the small window just above her head, forced to get on her toes.

«Adam...», she called him uncertain, moving one hand over the glass.

That gesture caused an even more suffocating knot in Jensen's throat. It was not to happen, he was not to be separated from her, he did not want to see her again so distressed by worry and fear.

He had to stay with Selene, he _wanted_ to stay with Selene.

He could not say with what absurd fortune the bullets fired at him, behind him, were limited to abruptly diverting towards the walls on either side of the door, yet he could sense that there was a reason quite different from the simple inability of the Tarvos shooters to aim well.

It had been her, it had been Selene.

Adam knew it and, _damn it_ , he wanted to reach her at exactly that moment.

The girl widened her blue eyes at the effort to maintain that control over shots fired from assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols. Several bullets would have hit the _mark_ , if she hadn't done something about it right away.

«Careful», she murmured softly, almost breathlessly.

She was not able to understand if the ex-SWAT had heard her, but something in Jensen's serious expression and his movements committed to finding shelter behind the nearest table confirmed that doubt.

However, she had no further chance to _help him_ at a distance because Selene recognized a noise behind her, coming from an elevated point. She turned just in time to dodge a sequence of white laser beams projected directly from a turret that had appeared from the ceiling.

The memory of what had happened in France stood out with clear precision in her mind, while at the same time remembering the feeling of panic that she had kept at bay on that occasion with unexpected efficiency. In that case, however, everything was different, worse.

She was alone facing an enemy with no shelter, no escape route, and Adam was instead in the next room, facing a large number of Tarvos soldiers ready to kill him.

It was with that weight on her heart that she tried to survive, with the sordid certainty that it was all her fault, that she had dragged Jensen into that hell for her ephemeral well-being.

Everything about her seemed to be enclosed again in that persistent sense of guilt, heartbreaking and ineluctable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The character mentioned in the chapter, Dr. Darcy Veldrin, really exists in the world of Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and you can read his interview in the Picus Daily Standard during the GARM mission. I couldn't find any pictures or descriptions of him online, so I took the freedom to represent him to my personal taste.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even though far from the battlefield, Adam and Selene discover that they are not safe, especially when they are together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Presence of strong language and scenes of violence, with violent graphic content (highly described) and not suitable for a sensitive audience. Detailed references to sex, but there is no sex scene.  
>   
> Song for you: [Razor's Edge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk3pLyXtIWY)

«Artair, do something!»

Adam's voice resonated loudly through the transmitters in the ears of both the Scots, while he remained bent over the table thrown on its side, his head turned to the door that separated him from the hacker's niece and all around him a storm of gunshots.

Selene had to concentrate all her attention on the turret that kept shooting at her to avoid being pierced by those concentrated heat beams, dodging and jumping from side to side, putting her body under extreme physical strain.

She didn't have time to try to use her mental skills and she wasn't even sure she could, since she had protected Adam a few seconds earlier in the same way, using some of that energy needed to control an inanimate object.

« _Shit, a hidden security system has been activated. I need time!_ »

«Your niece may not have enough!», the agent blurted out.

He clenched his metal fists while trying to find an alternative solution, cursing himself mentally for deciding not to carry a lethal weapon, definitely suitable for such a fight. Even if equipped with deadly grafts such as nano-blades or the Typhoon, he wasn't sure that using them in that room would allow BlueDevil to work again on the computer station. If he damaged or destroyed something, he risked being separated from Selene for longer than expected.

The girl let slip an angry, annoyed verse.

«The situation is complicated enough without you two yelling in my ear. Shut up! That damn thing appeared from the ceiling and is following all my movements!»

Jensen tightened his jaw, surprised by those words.

As long as he had stayed in front of the door, Selene didn’t seem to have been in as much danger as he was. He would have wanted to check personally what it was about, but if he had abandoned the shelter he would have been hit by bullets without any doubt. He had to think first of all of the Tarvos soldiers who were shooting at him.

«McTavish, seal the elevator access. I deal with the guards, but no more should arrive. Selene, hold on!»

«As if I was planning to get shot», she commented, ending the sentence with an imprecise grunt.

Jensen launched the desk behind which he stayed hidden towards the Tarvos men, charging Icarus Dash to move quickly among them, taking them by surprise.

The adrenaline in his body made him agile and extremely precise: he stunned four soldiers with the corresponding number of TESLA ammo and then let go in rapid succession several blasts of P.E.P.S. to defeat a group of six who were trying to surround him.

He moved again in a hurry activating the TITAN to overcome a barrage of bullets unharmed, striking three enemies in sequence, leaving them simply unconscious.

He had to disable the experimental protection so as not to consume the energy converter completely, allowing it to recharge for a few precious seconds while he found shelter beyond a low shelf.

He activated the cloaking system to move to another point, leaving the guards intent on firing towards his previous position, allowing him to load more TESLA and PEPS shots to take out the last five men.

He reached the wall adjacent to the passage leading to the corridor, staying close to the edge to maintain a sheltered position and at the same time to keep an eye on the elevator access. He waited for a few more seconds before observing the blocking of the sliding doors, sensing its malfunction thanks to the alarm that went on shortly afterward.

« _I cut the power, but the security system that Selene is facing is protected by a very complex program. I need a few minutes._ »

Adam rushed back across the room, avoiding the bodies lying unconscious on the ground and the chaotic disaster of scattered sheets of paper and destroyed medical instruments. He tried again to grab the reinforced end of the locked door to lift it, but when he realized that he couldn’t move it in any way, he glanced beyond the glass rumble of the door.

Selene was moving at an impressive speed, using her hands and legs to give herself thrust and momentum to dodge the laser beams fired at her in ever-increasing succession, with useful gaps of a couple of seconds to allow the turret to recharge and not overheat.

If she was near a wall, she used it as a support to move away with a violent and sudden rapidity; if she jumped up to the ceiling, she pushed herself down again taking advantage of the force of gravity.

Jensen realized that it would be impossible for him to move in that way, having to admit with himself that that agility went far beyond his augmentations.

He could even protect himself from bullets and explosions, but the young woman was able to move with a much faster speed than his, perhaps barely similar if he had used Icarus Dash without any pause between one move and another, but he would have consumed the energy converter so quickly that he'd be forced to stop, and it would have been a decidedly fatal pause against that type of turret.

« _Almost done_!», Artair warned them.

Jensen let slip an impatience grunt, determined to try again to move the cladding that forbade him access to the door, responding to growing frustration by loading several punches against the steel.

Selene was distracted for a single moment by the deep thud she heard coming from the adjacent room, taking a quick glance at the sealed doorway and sensing that it was Adam who was provoking them.

The vigor she felt flowing through her veins allowed her to move with precision and readiness, her body could hold up as long as necessary. She dodged another rapid sequence of beams of light, forced to move away towards the access from which the ex-SWAT and she should have escaped.

The brute force that Jensen consumed for those blows, although it was risking leaving him short of energy, resonated in the surrounding environment in a continuous and deafening clangor. When finally a small portion of the metal bent, misaligning itself from the rails arranged along the wall, he grabbed the edge between his fingers to pull it towards himself. He didn't perceive it give way by a single inch, but he didn't stop anyway, relying on every synthetic and muscular fiber of his body to keep trying. He placed one foot against the wall to apply a larger lever, while a loud, angry verse broke his breath.

All his thoughts were directed at the girl over that _stupid_ obstacle. He couldn't find a single moment of quiet from the persistent physical and mental need to reach her as soon as possible.

He didn't believe it was possible, but he was terrified by the simple prospect of not arriving in time, of being forced to wait for BlueDevil to clear his way and, once in the next room, he would find Selene drilled with shots in a pool of blood.

It was a setting so devastating that he decided not to pay the slightest attention to HUD's warning messages, rapid danger signals that tried to warn him of the risk of breaking his back, or of the possibility of a cybernetic arm coming off his shoulder.

«Artair!», growled Jensen almost to the end of his rope, his voice broken by fatigue.

Even when he finally felt the coating _tear_ from its supports, he continued to make the most of all his strength, so much so that the kickback caused by completely unhinging the reinforced protection made the agent move a few shaky steps.

He was able only after a couple of seconds to throw the object far away and swoop against the door with an equally brutal shoulder, capable of causing him a legitimate stream of chest pain accompanied by messages in red in the HUD — absolutely insignificant.

The noise produced by Adam's attack reached Selene's ears again, distracting her once again. It was at that moment that a laser pierced her from side to side into the muscle of her left shoulder, in the soft depression above the collarbone.

At first, she didn't even realize it, adrenaline and her innate physical strength made her almost completely insensitive to any minor external distraction, but the pain remained silent for a few more moments before it exploded in her chest and back, burning and sudden.

Some foolish part of her believed that if she was hit, she wouldn't perceive anything simply because the laser of the turret would burn her nerve endings and turn off any possible hint of physical suffering in advance.

She was wrong, _oh_ , how she was.

The truth was that a normal person wouldn't even bleed from that kind of wound, because the hole would be cauterized immediately by the heat of the beam, but Selene wouldn't. Selene was already starting to heal. It was for that reason that she could feel everything and immediately.

Although it cost her a great deal of effort to ignore the sudden whiff of tiredness caused by the loss of blood under her battle dress, and even though her left arm was so numb that she couldn't move it well, the girl did her best to move quickly. When she finally heard her uncle's voice through her earpiece, the alarmed tone of him echoed annoyingly in her brain, bright glow directly behind her eyes generated by the sound source too loud for her physical condition.

« _Done!_ »

The turret retreated into the ceiling with the same mechanical sound with it had shown itself several minutes earlier, giving an unexpected respite that Selene welcomed with necessary relief.

Jensen passed the door only at that moment, breaking into the room and continuing his run towards the young woman while she caught her breath for a moment, near the other doorway that opened in response to commands given by BlueDevil.

When Adam was close enough to her, Selene turned around so as not to slow down the agent's pace and to continue on the corridor lit by the path lights with him, running a little further ahead — she intent on not letting him notice the wound and busy ignoring it in turn for as long as necessary.

«Artair, close the entrances behind us and get back behind the wheel. See you at the extraction point in ten», Adam said in a frantic tone.

« _Already done! I’m moving!_ », replied the hacker in a serious voice.

Selene took a quick glance at Jensen from over her right shoulder as she spaced him a few feet away for her innate speed, the adrenaline in her body starting to fade, making it harder to turn off the excruciating pain between chest and back.

She knew that the combat suit kept the blood loss blocked beyond the fabric, allowing her to hide the wound from the agent. If she was lucky, neither Adam nor her uncle would have noticed.

In her mind, among her hasty and reckless thoughts dictated not so much by the shock of having been hit but rather by her young and _inexperienced_ nature, the hateful thinking emerged that such an event could somehow compromise the possibility of her participating in following _missions_.

She could hide and conceal her pain, she was used to doing it since she had the memory. She had endured much worse wounds in the past, she had survived terrible and agonizing situations. She wouldn't allow a hole not even one inch wide on her shoulder to keep her away from her aim.

Yet, despite trying not to think about it, she felt more and more engulfed by tiredness, fear, anxiety, worried about collapsing at any moment. And finally, it was clear to her why.

It wasn’t her body that suffered that wound, but her mind, the recall of when she had risked so much, of when she had found herself so close to the same oblivion that she suddenly remembered with destructive perfection — when the _connection_ with her father was broken and she had _felt_ him die.

The wild rush to the exit had the power to appease her, but if she was really alone with her thoughts, she wouldn't be able to hold back, she would burst into tears for despair. That harassing agony suggested to her how unprepared she was for such situations. Years of training, years of discipline and control, but the fear of death continued to make her helpless and fragile.

They made their way to the sewerage system in less time than expected, reaching a closed gate that marked the exit from the Versalife facility. Selene opened it with momentum, moving a few more quick steps and turning slightly to watch Adam close it with a rapid movement of his arms and then breaking the handle to lock it in a pure precautionary gesture.

The girl slowed down her gait to wait for him, but when he started running again, he beckoned her to move, the dark shields on his eyes making his expression even more serious and focused.

«Don't stop, we're almost there», he urged her in a frantic tone.

They passed through the circular passage of the gutter a few minutes later, the cold air of the forest that swept over them with a lashing patina of dampness and silence, with the dense darkness that enveloped them, with inclemency.

They both had a primordial alarm motion in noticing in the distance some approaching lights, but they discovered together that it was Artair's car. The hacker pulled over to the side of the road, exposing the passenger side, allowing the two to slip into the vehicle quickly.

When Selene finally felt the consistency of the back seat under her buttocks, she freed her chest from a silent breath.

Her heart was beating fast and deep, and that sharpened the pain in her shoulder, her left arm lying softly on her belly in a pose that she tried to make it look natural and spontaneous.

She had the certainty at that moment that neither the ex-SWAT nor her uncle had noticed the wound, accomplice of their carelessness the darkness of the night and the hurry to leave that place.

She began to hold her breath more and more often, remembering how to put out the burning and that primordial instinct that risked betraying her with a shock reaction.

Although she knew how suspicious it must have been that she didn't remove the elastic fabric that covered her face yet, the _protection_ of the uniform allowed her to disguise for a few more minutes.

She just had to put up with it, as she had learned to do all her life.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

On the way back, Artair had explained what had happened. The excessive consumption of electricity that he had detected in the server room of the structure was actually hijacked both to the computer of the hexagonal room and to the turret the man's niece had had to face.

BlueDevil had extrapolated the data necessary to better study such a security system, partly confirming the possibility that the weapon of that place had been activated as soon as the presence of the girl's genetic code was recorded.

Such an idea left very little room for hypothetical doubts, giving instead probable confirmations to all those theories examined in the previous days: someone was sowing precise clues to be able to lure Selene into a trap, or to kill her, using information that suggested that behind the structures of Nantes and Hradec Králové there was someone who possessed data on the Hymeneal Plan.

«Fuck, Adam, if you hadn't been with her», McTavish repeated in a slightly apprehensive tone, «I wouldn't have been able to maintain the connection with that. If Selene had been alone...»

Artair didn't even finish the sentence, shaking his head while driving.

The young woman leaned slightly between the two front seats, her face finally uncovered by the fabric, as well as her hands, and the fake leather jacket worn to better hide the wound. She had almost risked crying in pain when she was forced to make those very normal movements.

«Thank you, uncle, I always appreciate your infinite confidence in my skills», she joked in an ironic tone, raising an eyebrow.

Jensen bent slightly to the side to look over his shoulder, his eyes covered by the shields.

Selene tilted her face, leaning her cheek just to the upper edge of the driver's seat, so that she could best see the expression of the ex-SWAT, a faint smile on her lips.

«But yes, I have to admit that without him it would have been harder to get out of there. Everything would have been harder», added her in a much more relaxed voice.

The agent, in turn, raised a perfectly visible eyebrow, surprised by those words and the tone she used.

«Sorry, I guess I didn't quite understand», began Jensen, subtly incredulous. «Could you repeat that, please?»

«You jerk», Selene apostrophized him with a small smile, giving him a quick pat with her right hand on the shoulder still covered by the body armor.

She returned to a more comfortable sitting position, although she tried never to lean against the backrest. She didn't want to risk leaving traces of blood on the seat, but she could already feel her body speeding up her natural healing process even more.

The journey by car continued smoothly to a free parking lot near Artair's house.

Adam intended to take the equipment _borrowed_ from Interpol to his apartment, but he would return to the Překážka district by feet, walking for no more than fifty minutes at a fast pace: it wasn't a good idea to move in a group with all that compromising stuff in the car to the most guarded district of the city; for Jensen, it would have been better to move alone even to evade possible police patrols.

Selene obviously couldn't wait to be at home to check the state of the injury. Asking to be left practically under her apartment building would have made the two men suspicious, so she opted for silence.

The temperature in Prague was now more and more inclement and cold, capable of causing quite evident shivers in the young lady as soon as she got off the vehicle, coinciding with the pain that she still felt pouring into her in waves sometimes feeble, sometimes lashing.

The flesh was trying to heal with the clothes pressed on the exposed part. Imagining the moment when she should have taken off her clothes gave her a vague hint of further suffering.

When Adam walked past her to reach the trunk, Selene struggled to repress a gasp: the idea that the agent still had a way of understanding that she had been hit by one of the laser beams made her extremely tense. It was for that reason that she hastened to remove the earpiece from her ear to return it to him while the man put the armor in his bag.

Jensen took a quick look at her, noting in that gesture a bizarre movement of anxiety. However, he took the small object in one hand and slipped it into an inside pocket where he had already put the one lent to McTavish, while Artair, in turn, retrieved his duffel bag from the same compartment of the car.

Selene slipped her hands into the pockets of the jacket, holding earphones and mobile between her fingers and squeezing lightly into her shoulders. That action made her contract the damaged muscle and this caused her a pain that she could barely hide.

«I'm going, guys. Good night», she said them.

Adam remained motionless for a moment.

He had watched the girl's expression change radically for just an instant and had recorded a stress peak that he could have recognized even without the help of the social enhancer.

When he saw her turn around, he wondered why his instincts were pressing so furiously to be heard. He activated the smart vision because he knew how much he could trust his intuition, his judgment, and how, in an absolutely shocking way, he was able to perceive a simple change in the young woman's natural behavior.

It took him about five seconds to understand why Selene's back was so straight and stiff, why she walked with a fast but slightly dragged step, why he could see traces of blood on her clothes.

_Shit..._

Jensen took one look at Artair, next to him, the duffel bag on his shoulder as he waited for the agent to finish storing his equipment. Realizing that the hacker hadn't noticed anything made him understand why the young McTavish had chosen to keep quiet and leave as soon as possible.

The fact that Selene had decided not to say anything even to the ex-SWAT caused him a sequence of obvious, reasonable, understandable sensations that he could ignore, but he didn't want to. He didn't need to tell himself how reckless that awareness was, how frightening and senseless that admission was.

He was worried about her, more than it was appropriate to admit, and more than it was legitimate to experiment.

He put on his coat and retrieved the bag with a quick movement, holding it in his hand while he evaluated what to do.

If he had warned McTavish, Selene would have been quite annoyed, he was sure of that, but keeping such a situation quiet to her only relative seemed equally absurd to him.

If the girl had decided on her own to manage a wound that could cause her to bleed, she was probably also able to cope with everything necessary to treat herself and secure a night's rest.

Even Adam would have preferred to take care of it personally, without asking anyone.

But how much would he have appreciated, in the depths of his soul, that anyone bold enough to ignore his pride and his natural inclination not to burden others, would help him at such a situation?

When he made a decision, Jensen took a long look at the hacker, a faint sigh to ripple his lips surrounded by his beard before he spoke.

Selene, finally in her apartment, closed the door behind her with a tired movement, leaning for a few moments against the entry even with her nape.

The hair pulled in the bun was starting to bother her a lot, but the first thing she did was to turn on the laptop to activate the heating and closing the front door, and then go straight to the sideboard to retrieve the jar of hazelnut cream and take a spoon from the nearby drawer.

The sweet taste that ran over her mouth drove away for a few magnificent seconds the feeling of bitterness that she had felt on her tongue all the way.

She got rid of the jacket paying attention to the movements she was forced to make, taking the mobile and earphones out of the pockets, and tried to understand if she would be forced to wash it or throw it in the garbage. She left the garment on the back of a dining table chair and took a glass to pour cold water directly from the tap, drinking several times and calmly. She moved to the bathroom, in front of the sink, staring at the mirror for a few moments.

The first thing she always noticed when she looked at her face was the tattoo of the seahorse, and automatically her thoughts ran to Damian.

The choice of not knowing where her mentor was had been carefully considered when her uncle and she had separated from him, because at times like that, while her heart made her feel how much she missed the man who had raised her with her parents, she would have risked contacting him and asking him to stay with her.

It would have been a purely selfish and childish choice, because Damian deserved to regain possession of his life and return to a normal existence that Selene couldn't give him in any way. It wasn’t at all the feeling of deep affection she had felt for him for so many years, but it was about the atavistic certainty that her instructor would end up putting the young woman's well-being before his own, and she didn't deserve it.

Dealing with Damian's absence was the best way to thank him for everything the man had done for her, but even though she repeated how correct her reasoning was, and how illogical her sadness was, Selene observed her blue eyes rippling for the crying that had just happened.

Those were the worst moments when she felt Damian's absence tearing her chest. She wanted him next to her, ready to hold her in a longed-for embrace and whisper in her ear that everything would be all right, that the shoulder wound was a trifle, that she would overcome even that pain with innate readiness, and that she would return to live out her days as she had always done.

After a short sigh, her right hand raised on her cheeks to wipe away those tears that she could no longer control, Selene tried to bring both arms behind her back, an action that forced her to swallow several times, pushing back quite a few puffs of pain and discomfort as she tried to open the back buckles that closed her tactical vest. She succeeded in part in the task, aware of how painful it would have been to get rid of the clothes that remained attached to her living flesh.

The thought made her sob a couple of times, the attempt to maintain a calm that she knew well was fading with great speed.

When she heard a knock at the door, three precise knocks, she jumped slightly, a twinge that barely broke her breath. She ignored the whole thing, thinking that it was some neighbor annoyed by the noises she might have caused, but as soon as the sound was repeated with a certain insistence, she began to have some doubts.

She looked out from the bathroom, staying in front of the sofa for a few more moments before reaching the entrance with measured steps, stopping a few inches from the door.

«Yes? Who is it?», she asked in an uncertain tone.

«Selene, open up», replied Adam Jensen in a peremptory voice from beyond the door.

A plunge into her heart made her miss a couple of beats, stiffening, a sequence of hasty thoughts, full of anxiety, that invested her mercilessly.

What _the hell_ was he doing there? Why had he come to her apartment? Why did he have to keep acting like that, as if he wasn’t afraid of what she might do to him? As if he ignored the most obvious survival instinct? Why was that man not doing exactly what a normal person should have done? Understand how wrong she was, a wounded animal, and stay at arm's length?

The left hand stopped on the handle trembled imperceptibly. She opened after a long moment of hesitation and moved together with the door to hide the shoulder beyond it, trying to maintain a simple and lawfully doubtful expression.

The agent, his eyes covered by the shields, wore his coat and held the dark duffel bag in one hand.

«What is it? Why are you here?», she asked, the voice just cracked by deliberate concern.

«Lemme see», he said, serious.

Although the girl knew that there was no point in lying, there was no point in continuing with that charade, she still tried to gain some time that she didn’t have.

«What? What are you talking about?», did the young woman, shaking her head.

The man stretched his free arm towards the door, moving it further away to enter and leave the bag under the first nearby window with a subtly angry act.

«Told you lemme see.»

The girl stepped aside in time to avoid the door hitting her aching shoulder, moving a couple of steps back.

«Adam, what the fuck! The hell is wrong with you?»

Jensen closed the entrance behind him without stopping staring at her, pointing a carbon finger at her while making his green-gold eyes visible, serious and attentive.

«Cut the bullshit, Selene! Lemme see where you’re hurt!»

She raised her head, biting her lower lip shortly afterward, showing an uncertain expression. She swallowed before speaking. «Does my uncle know?»

The ex-SWAT denied with a firm nod, listening to that very first confirmation of what he had feared, understood, several minutes before. «I wouldn't be alone if Artair knew.»

Selene gave him a long, regretful look, bowing her face at the end. She was almost tempted to answer him with poisonous words, because there was really no logical reason, no sensible reason, that led the man to demand that sincerity from her.

Who _the fuck_ did Adam Jensen think he was?

A temptation that was born from a purely angry instinct. She could have given in, but the more she looked at him, the more she couldn’t really evaluate that decision. She wasn’t even sure that, if not, she would be able to push him away.

«Come in», she surrendered, too tired even to baste such a discussion. «Better go to the bathroom.»

She watched him get rid of his coat and leave it on a chair on the table, his augmented limbs, exposed by a black sleeveless shirt with a slightly high collar, that shone like obsidian under the lights on.

Hearing the agent's footsteps behind her gave her quite a few mixed feelings. She had no idea when he noticed it, but part of Selene felt relieved that the ex-SWAT hadn't said anything to Artair. She was fairly certain that he hadn’t lied to her, although she was equally sure that the agent could still report it later.

Adam noticed better the traces of blood on the girl's clothing, although without activating the smart vision he was unable to determine where she was injured. Walking to the end of the living room he distractedly observed a jar of hazelnut cream left open on a kitchen shelf, a freshly soiled spoon resting on the round white plastic cap.

Probably the need to take something sweet was a direct consequence of the girl's physical condition. And also, of the mental one, because he was sure that it was the tender comfort given by food.

By stopping in front of the sink, Selene took a look through the reflection of the mirror at the man behind her. Jensen's gaze was clearly reprimanding, unexpectedly severe, his eyebrows furrowed and the expression lines on his forehead more marked.

She sighed bringing her hands behind her back to complete the opening of the robe, trying to unhook the clips under the nape, raising her arms automatically and huffing for pain at tight teeth, a couple of tears immediately caught between the dark lashes.

Adam lifted his fingers to act in place of the young McTavish, exposing the gray shirt underneath. It was stained with blood on the left side, just beyond the now open edge of the combat vest, and went down tightly over the entire back to beyond the hips still protected by the tactical garment.

BlueDevil's niece raised her right hand to slide the fabric that had covered her face over the head, leaving it dangling over her chest, beginning shortly afterward to release the arm from the reinforced sleeve. When she tried to do the same with the other limb, she held back with renewed energy some verse of pain, stopping several times in an attempt to find the right way to remove that part of the vest.

Jensen immediately understood her intent to remain silent and helped her to free the arm by gently pulling the other end, the upper half of the black suit that finally rocked just below the waist, exposing the trained physique of the girl.

The gray shirt was long-sleeved, cotton, soaked to the left side with sticky blood that made it darker in the wet spots, front and back.

The ex-SWAT observed carefully to understand where the hole in the fabric was, locating it at shoulder height. He was quite sure that the back hole was slightly lower than the front one: from that simple detail, he could understand that the young woman had been hit frontally, from top to bottom. And, _Christ_ , the wound was so close to her neck that she would just have to be a couple of inches to the right to have her throat pierced.

«Fuck, Selene... You're reckless», the man shook his head. «When did this happen?»

The girl tilted her face slightly, turning just on her left side to address the agent. «Just before my uncle deactivated the turret.»

Adam took a long look at her, unable to maintain the severe frown that he could see on his face looking just beyond, in the mirror.

Suddenly remembering that he had been pushed out of that room made his stomach sink into an indefinite void in his abdomen. If he had been with her in that room, perhaps the turret would have given her a minimum of respite and she wouldn’t have been hurt.

«You had no right to push me out of there», he said, the voice just lower than before.

«If I hadn't, my uncle wouldn't have been able to maintain the connection with that computer», pointed out the young woman, gaining reason without difficulty. «And even though you have that graft that allows you to snap as fast, you can't move as I do, you know. You could have been hurt too, or worse.»

The simple prospect of imagining Jensen bleeding or dying made her shake her head in a nod of dissent as she turned completely towards him, swallowing hard, determined to face him.

«I can't consider the idea that you get hurt to protect me, Adam. I told you. I don't want it to happen, I won't let it happen.»

Those words sounded like the most terrible Jensen had heard in a while. They were terrifying and agonizing, so painful and unstable that he was subtly shocked. He hadn't felt such transport towards him for years, and could only continue to listen to the heartfelt words she was uttering without fear.

«My parents died to protect me», added the girl in a low tone, bowing her face, not enough to allow the agent to see other hints of a freshly controlled cry in her blue eyes. «But now I can protect myself. If necessary, I can prevent you from being hurt or killed while you are with me.»

The man shook his head in a firm nod, raising a hand as a sign of exasperation, the burning desire to hold her and let her vent the shock against him. And to thank her, because although he felt like a complete idiot when he thought about it, it had been a very long time since someone had admitted with such candid sincerity how much they wanted to help him and how much they wanted to try to protect him — and she had done so, she had protected him from those first bullets.

«And you, then?», continued the man, almost unable to calm down completely. «You were lucky! What will happen when you are wounded in a much more serious way? You lose an arm and have it replaced? Will you get augmented?»

Reproaching her also served to appease him, because he was angry at what he saw and what he was listening to.

Selene slightly put her head between her shoulders and that movement barely gave her a twinge of pain that forced her to grit her teeth and to squeeze her eyelids, a couple of tears that slipped over her cheeks without her being able to avoid it — and at that point, Adam had to tighten his fists hard so as not _to give in_.

She looked elsewhere, at a point where she could avoid for a few moments the agent's expression of disapproval, wiping her face again with the palm of her right hand.

«I can't be augmented, Adam. My genetic code isn't designed to support this technology. I would suffer from Darrow Deficiency Syndrome in a very violent way, and I would risk dying at the first sign of rejection.»

The ex-SWAT found himself sweetening his expression, unable not to feel a definitive and vigorous flame of empathy and understanding ignite in his chest at that new confession and the frightened expression of her — because she was frightened, in that case, he could be sure.

He didn't know how to respond, neither to the girl nor to himself, finally opting for a hesitation that lasted very little, shaking his head in a slight nod of denial.

«You are so silly. You know that, don't you?»

Selene lingered in a meaningful, uncertain silence, biting her lower lip as she looked elsewhere until she decided to return to the _problem_ exposed on her shoulder, taking a look at her guest to close that umpteenth parenthesis between them.

«The shirt is attached to the wound, Adam, and I've already started healing. You'd better get out if you don't want to witness the scene.»

The man inhaled and exhaled calmly, denying with a serious motion, turning slightly to the right side of the young woman to help her free the arm she could move more easily. He made the gray T-shirt pass over her head, taking obvious care even of the bun that was starting to lose some grip on the back of her neck.

His carbon fingers barely touched her, grabbing the jersey only where it was needed. When he discovered that underneath it the girl was wearing only a black sports bra with the elastic band that delimited the circumference of the female bust, he realized that he could look at her without feeling uncomfortable again, almost as if a part of himself felt natural, _normal_ , that he could look at the soft curves of the generous breasts covered by that undergarment.

He had seen her naked several nights before: he still remembered what her young, trained body looked like. The tattoos that decorated the visible portions of the skin seemed to vibrate with latent energy, but Jensen focused all his attention on the wound he knew would reopen as soon as he pulled the garment off.

Selene leaned with her buttocks on the edge of the sink, ready to tug her shirt, but Jensen stopped her to give her a chance to relax for a moment. He squeezed his carbon fingers on the wet fabric and left the other robotic fingertips on her healthy shoulder, just above the wide bra strap.

They stared at each other for an instant before she nodded flatly, the right palm pressed down on the agent's carbon forearm, firm pressure on the warm, smooth polymers, directly on the overexposed golden part that emphasized the circular hole of the Typhoon, while the left hand remained soft along the female side.

«In one move, Adam, or it'll hurt more if you do it slowly.»

The agent nodded again, looking for a moment at the young girl's blue eyes and receiving an equally serious and confident look in response.

When he pulled the shirt off, Selene's lips were marked in a perfectly visible grimace. She uttered an imperceptible lament and bit her lower lip with decisive force, unable to avoid other annoying tears between her eyelashes.

The blood began to flow less abundantly than expected, slipping on the back and chest, the neckline of the bra stained with crimson rivulets. Despite the evident regenerative capacity of her body, the pain just experienced rekindled an evident tremor in the young McTavish.

Adam saw her stagger dangerously. He threw her shirt on the floor a few inches from their shoes, on the side of the shower box, to immediately stretch his hands towards her exposed waist. The tactical vest still covered her from the hips down, with the top hanging ridiculously between them.

He could no longer struggle against the impulse to hold her, not when the warmth of her skin spread with destructive perfection in the carbon fingertip sensors.

That same morning, he had felt the awareness that nothing in the world would have prepared him to face the vision of her wounded, painful and frightened. He didn’t believe that he would have to come to terms with that new certainty so soon.

Selene raised her palms in a bland attempt to stop him, her voice trembling as much as her fingers.

«You'll get dirty», she murmured uncertainly — the desire to feel wrapped in a reassuring embrace, surprised to actually receive it from Jensen.

«Hush, little girl», the agent warned her.

He approached the young McTavish with a gentle grip, taking great care not to let her move her left arm badly.

«Don't make me regret not being so angry at you anymore», he added in an equally firm voice.

_You are lying shamelessly, you are no longer even remotely bothered by her behavior. And admit at least to yourself that you've wanted to hug her for hours._

Artair's niece couldn't help but relax instantly, her mind freed from the need to maintain that control that she could no longer bear.

The shock came out completely at that moment, _destroying her_ with increasing tremors, the voice just broken by a soft lament. Her breath became rapid and short, accompanied by the devastating feeling of not being able to hold that reaction for long.

Adam barely shook his head in a nod of understanding.

He had seen and recognized the way the girl was crumbling in front of him, and to perceive her so _weak_ again gave him a sordid feeling of bewilderment in the mouth of his stomach.

Why did it have to hurt so much to see Selene in that condition?

«Breathe, breathe», he whispered in her ear, supporting her just enough as soon as he perceived her knees shaking more than expected. «You are safe, and I got you. You can't fall or get hurt again, okay? Just breathe. I'm here with you.»

The girl could only cling to him with her right hand, harpooning her fingers on the black shirt in an imprecise point at the height of the man's hip. She held her head turned to the side, with her cheek pressed just below the collarbone and her forehead almost in contact with Jensen's neck, her bleeding shoulder deliberately placed a little further away. Her blue eyes were grainy with amazement and fear of having suffered something to which, after all, she had never really got used to.

«You... You'll g-get dirty... P-please...», she murmured.

Jensen barely repressed the smile that attempted to appear on his lips, a brief amused verse that nevertheless betrayed his fake stern attitude. He could no longer be harsh, severe, he just wanted to reassure her.

«Selene», he called her softly, with kindness, a calm note in his voice, «I won’t tell you a third time. Hush.»

He listened to her let out a hoarse and uncertain laugh, something that anticipated the soft whining that came out of her throat, feeling her denying energetically against the shoulder, on the black shirt, and then felt her tremble so hard that he immediately understood her need to hide her face and _nipped_ in the bud an even louder cry.

«O-all a-an excuse», she continued, despite her voice now trembled in the same way, «f-for hugging me while I'm ha-half-naked...»

The comment made Jensen smile genuinely, giving him a sudden but very brief sense of well-being that he didn't think he wanted so much in turn. He held her close for as long as she needed.

The way Selene faced the shock gave him another flash of concern, intense and burning: this wasn’t the way a twenty-two years old girl had to face that moment, trying to control herself, to calm down, to find a composure that she didn’t have to desire.

It was the same way to react to the shock of an adult person, committed for training and awareness to have to put aside that _weakness_ to be able to cope with the rest of a mission without being overwhelmed.

This wasn’t how she had to live that fear, she didn’t deserve to be forced to hide her pain from others, simply because she had been raised with that goal.

_Twenty-two years old... She is so young, so young... Not like this, damn it. Not like this..._

He felt her relax gradually, a time that certainly seemed too long to her, but in the end didn’t even last five minutes.

Jensen bent his head just to look at her, watching her fold her face back to better rest her right cheek under his collarbone, looking at her from that very short distance while Selene was breathing normally again.

He found himself lifting his hand to slide his carbon index finger over the tattoo of the seahorse, probing the thickness of the underlying scar. He wiped the wet cheekbone of weeping with a delicate passage of the thumb, changing the position of the robotic palm to give way to that slight touch.

Selene welcomed with all too much need that moment of tenderness and understanding, still incredulous that Adam might have wanted, once again, to give her that sudden and unexpected closeness.

It was hard to believe that it was the same man who had addressed words of reprimand to her a few moments earlier, definitely justified and lawful, she knew it well, but it was as clear to her as _that_ really was the nature of the agent: kind and good, and absurdly sweet.

After a quick sigh, she tilted her head upwards, still remaining with her cheek pressed on the chest of the ex-SWAT, totally intent on scrutinizing his expression and finding him closer than expected.

She wasn’t at all intimidated by his caress on her face and his _alien_ gaze. And it was useless to deny what she was asking with that nod, the meaning behind her youthful expression that caused the agent's renewed sense of fear, the certainty that Selene shouldn’t ask that silent question at all.

Adam had the feeling that it had been a lifetime since someone had given him such a glare, such a transport, such an unmotivated adoration. It had been _so long_ since he had seen a woman with that expression, that he had seen a woman show without delay that desire, that mute request to be touched by him, brushed by him, kissed by him. But the worst thing was to believe that he wasn’t worthy of it.

Jensen took a step away, hoping that she wouldn’t follow him in the movement, swallowing the knot in his throat at the sight of her waiting, while she kindly _demanded_ a kiss that the man categorically forbade himself to think about again.

Fortunately, Selene simply stayed in her place, the _abrupt_ moving that caused her renewed doubt, unsure as to why the agent showed such contrasting attitudes.

«You need stitches», said the man, looking the girl in the eye so as not to look _elsewhere_ — her lips barely tilted in a faint pout of disappointment, her magnificently full neckline, soft and delightfully embellished with tattoos, the blood that had left dark traces on her skin.

He had to find some composure.

«No», she slowly denied, the tiredness that was beginning to demand more and more of its contribution. «It'll begin to heal again soon. Can you pass me the towel, please?»

Selene gave him the back as soon as she had the cloth between the fingers of her right hand, wetting the sponge with hot water from the tap and starting to clean the areas dirty with red, to set aside that moment of closeness again.

Adam stood behind her and watched her, noting with some disbelief how quickly the wound stopped bleeding: the hole was still there, exposing the living flesh, but it seemed already close to the formation of a uniform, solid scab.

When the girl tried to clean the dirty part of the skin on her back, the man took the towel and continued rubbing gently and carefully, wetting the portion of the fabric from time to time to better moisturize the area and not to risk rubbing it too much.

It was the first time since he had been augmented that he touched someone's skin with his robotic fingertips. Not quite right, since he had touched the young woman's face on several occasions, he had held her hands, he had embraced her until a few moments before, but in that specific case, he knew how different it was, how much the contact could take on even more intimate connotations.

The feeling was so intense and surprising, so familiar and well-known, that he forgot that he couldn't really feel everything he was supposed to feel.

His memory _reminded_ him what it would be like to touch Selene with his natural palm, in a tactile action that at that moment had no other purpose than to maintain a more or less secure pressure to stretch the skin to be cleaned, but he still felt differently. Gently lingering, in the hope that the girl wouldn’t notice it, he tried to indulge the sudden need to replace memories of a previous life with more recent experiences, even if lacking in wider nuances.

BlueDevil's niece carefully observed Adam's expression through the image of him reflected in the mirror. She could guess conflicting feelings without being able to understand what they were triggered by. His _alien_ gaze was so focused on her that she was pleasantly astonished, not to mention that the care he was taking in helping her to clean up left her bewitched.

She bent her face slightly to the side, looking for the man's eyes, but keeping the same position so as not to interrupt him. Jensen responded to the nod, turning his head to the mirror through which he could probe her face.

«What is it? Am I hurting you?», he asked, stopping for a moment.

Selene denied it calmly, smiling barely, remaining silent for a few more seconds before being able to find her voice again. «No, not at all. On the contrary, you are rather gentle.»

She moved a little to the side to allow him to moisten the corner of the towel again with water, extending a couple of fingers to invite him to stay in front of her, touching his mechanical wrist stretched out towards the tap.

«It’s just...», she began to say with a disarming spontaneity. «It’s just that you are handsome, Adam. I wanted to look better at your eyes», she admitted, looking at him in the golden-green irises. «Without the shields, you are disarmingly handsome. That is to say... You are handsome even with your shields on, but this way I can... I can see better», she concluded with a delicate nod of the shoulders.

The man swallowed quickly, staring at her for a few seconds before returning behind her and resuming where he had left off, finally avoiding to look up at the mirror, concentrating on the action he was doing.

«You lost too much blood, huh, little girl?»

The young woman smiled, a vague hint of dissent that poured into her body a slight twinge of pain, just vented by a quick sigh.

«Yeah, of course. It’s so obvious that you are so unaware of your charms, Jensen.»

The man didn't answer, conscious of how inside him it was awakening the pleasure of feeling somehow flattered by those words, trying however not to show it, putting more attention on his duty.

With time he had learned to understand how much his augmentations had made him more and more sensitive about his own body, aware that he was unleashing negative or positive feelings in those who saw him for the first time: if on one hand, many people considered him an aberration, on the other hand, there were several who also considered him remarkably attractive, but it had always been easy to guess when that feeling was closely related to his substantially _different_ appearance.

Women — and men — who found him handsome actually very often found beautiful the idea of _having_ someone augmented. It was an objective reality he had learned to live with and had stopped upsetting and depressing him by erecting a barrier of detached control.

Selene had never been frightened by his grafts, although he could remember her nervous about the exposed nano-blades the first time she had seen him in the Bubeneč district, but with hindsight, he knew it was a matter of apprehension for Artair.

She had shown herself fascinated after the events at Helga Hartmann's house, a curiosity that had pushed her to study his robotic hand while BlueDevil was buying sandwiches in a fast-food restaurant. A curiosity that she had also turned to his face, touching him on his cheek for the first time. A curiosity that had brought her closer to him again when he went to her two days later to make sure she was okay.

Selene's wasn't a purely selfish _interest_ , a narcissistic, slimy habit, but a sincere approach to him, to understand him, to understand if she could trust him more, to understand if she could talk to him about what had happened to her, to understand if the man would have begun to place an equally genuine trust in her.

Adam knew in what context Selene's spontaneous appreciation could fit into, and for that very reason, he felt doubly shaken by it. Exactly how he had felt troubled by the sight of her so ready to claim a kiss that the agent was still thinking about — a thought he was trying to slaughter with all his might.

The young woman let slip a puff amused, bringing the man's attention back to her through the mirror. He saw her bowing her face while with her right hand she was resting two fingers just below the wound, a few inches from the collarbone.

«Well!», exclaimed the girl in a hilarious tone. «How lucky that it hit me in a spot where I have no tattoos. You know how boring to have to resume an interrupted drawing.»

The agent took a look at her arching his eyebrows, a shrill verse just before responding as he moistened the towel again. «Of course, that's your most important concern.»

Selene just smiled, tilting her head as she felt the pressure of the sponge near the edge of the sports bra. «I'm fine, Adam. Tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, I won't have any more injuries. I heal quickly. There won't even be a mark left.»

Jensen sighed in response, taking a quick look at the tattoos as he finished cleaning a dark spot that had reached her rib, better observing the presence of all the scars hidden by the black ink.

«So, you won't need to cover this new wound once it's closed?», he asked to go back to talk about something else.

The girl denied with her head, going down with her right hand on her abdomen to touch with her fingertips her skin, where she could perceive the differences in her epidermis.

«Nah, I told ya. No mark.»

The ex-SWAT remained silent for a moment, finally standing at full height, holding the sponge cloth in one hand after having finished cleaning the exposed areas and bringing a couple of fingers of the other end closer to the back, the scorpion's design covering only visually the scar tissue.

«If you heal so quickly and so efficiently, why do you have these left?»

Artair's niece lifted her head, deciding to turn around to look at him, leaning her buttocks against the sink and retrieving the towel to throw it over the washing machine in a quiet motion with her left arm, the first slightly more complex movement she chose to make to probe the state of the wound, still feeling a legitimate pain, but much less intense.

«Because I suffered all these wounds before my maturity», she answered calmly.

Jensen remained surprised for a moment, his gaze perplexed by that last word he understood the meaning, legitimately doubtful that it was really about that _situation_. His expression must have been so obvious that the girl let slip a small laugh, seeing her nod a little later.

«Before my first period, Adam», Selene added in a calm tone.

«Ah», he said, the look subtly embarrassed, the robotic hands that vibrated in a harmless and bland nod of shame.

The young girl giggled.

«Yeah, that was the same face Artair and Damian had when I expressed the need to buy tampons when I was fifteen», she mocked him and kept smiling at him. «You know how it works, don't you? Puberty brings change. In my case, it has definitely improved my physical and mental skills.»

«Hmm. Okay», the ex-SWAT simply responded, looking elsewhere.

Talking about such a private and personal topic left him rather unsure, not because it was something he ignored or that he had never deepened out of simple personal curiosity; the long relationship with Megan had introduced him without further delay even in that purely feminine situation.

Selene's words unconsciously gave him an answer to an unexpressed truth that he hadn’t even really thought about, if not at that moment, just as he was thinking about it.

He could score _two-plus-two_ all too easily, linking details and information that left a bitter taste in his mouth. Every time he had a chance to remind himself of Selene's story, he felt overwhelmed, he felt ripped apart.

_She was raped before she even got her period. She was a child... She was just a little girl..._

The young woman gave him another look, before bending her face in an amused expression, a raised corner of her lips while a faint redness imposed her cheeks.

Jensen noticed the effect of the goosebumps on her skin, forcibly ignoring how the fabric of the sports bra allowed him to admire the soft protrusions of the turgid nipples, and looking at the tattoo above her left breast for the first time, _still_ remembering what she had told him about it.

Under her parents' names written in Gaelic, no scars were visible to his augmented eyes. He knew that the wound covered by those writings was inside her, burnt in her heart.

Selene barely sighed, squeezing her arms under her sports bra, squeezing her grip a little, wondering if she was actually risking of looking flirty.

The gaze of the ex-SWAT was a tangible and solid physical presence, but paradoxically left her in a condition of exposure and doubt: the fact that he could see her scars made her insecure, because she recognized in his eye feelings of compassion, as well as many others that she didn’t fully understand.

The young McTavish bit her lower lip, aware of how much that silence was upsetting both of them. She took a new look at the man, a sudden sense of torpor hovering between her thoughts, a direct consequence of tiredness, pain, the closeness of him.

«Undress me, Adam», she whispered softly, wondering if what she should have done from the beginning was to give voice to that _question_.

The agent held his breath, his head just stiffened as his shoulders, his robotic hands tightened along his hips. «Selene...»

The girl continued looking at the ex-SWAT's, maintaining constant eye contact. «Stay with me tonight. Don't leave me alone.»

Jensen swallowed without success the knot that had been created in his throat.

Selene couldn't _play that card_ , to leverage the uncontrollable desire to reassure her, to protect her, to be close to her.

 _God_ , how much he had foreseen that request, how many times he had perceived, while in the Versalife structure, the need for her to give in to such a desire. How many times he had felt it the night before, while she remained with him after facing and appeasing her. How many times he was wondering what it would be like to _finally_ hear those words spoken by the young McTavish to understand how he would have responded. How much it hurt to admit that he wanted it so much too, without hesitation, without control, without limits.

The torment remained stuck right there, hateful and brutal: realizing that he wanted it with every synthetic and natural fiber of his body, but being equally aware of how he didn't really feel capable of letting go to such a _sublime_ possibility. He kept telling himself that he didn't deserve it.

The last time he had really made love to a woman was with Megan; after her, there had been only rapid and hasty occasions created by simple physiological necessity, nothing serious and lasting, nothing really satisfying. But it all went back a long way before he had been augmented. So much time had passed that he doubted whether he was really able to repeat that natural and human action, and feel everything his body should feel.

The man decided never to look away, a way to continue to read the girl's expression — and to check that her every movement didn't anticipate the intention of zeroing their distance altogether.

«Selene, you...» He paused, shaking his head just for a moment. «You're hurt.»

BlueDevil's niece hesitated again, lowering her hands on her belly in a relaxed motion.

«It's not a problem, since I'm already healing, but if that's what you're really worried about, you'll have no qualms about being bottom, leaving me the _pleasure_ to be on top.»

Adam risked choking on the same saliva he had tried to swallow again. The young lady, despite a hint of embarrassment, wasn't afraid to be cheeky and brazen. And it was useless to deny how much that behavior increased imperceptibly the stream of blood to his member protected by the pants.

«I can't...», he murmured, denying it again with a quick nod.

«You can't?», repeated Selene, sincerely intrigued by his response.

The agent remained silent for a few more seconds, still lingering in staring at her. «Selene, you and I... I’m too... Too _old_ for you...»

Artair's niece slightly frowned her eyebrows in a clear hint of disapproval, but let a weak giggle slip by, carrying her arms behind her body and slightly arching her back as she leaned her palms against the sink, the non-verbal language all too explicit.

«Adam, I'm not asking you who knows what, but even if it was, what's the age gap between us? Ten years? Twelve years?»

«Fourteen», he said, crossing his augmented limbs on his chest, in an attempt to appear controlling and convincing.

Who _the hell_ was he kidding? He knew very well how unsure his expression was.

The girl carelessly squeezed herself in the shoulders, a stream of pain that forced her to squint, absolutely determined to ignore it.

«I just want to have sex with you. Maybe first in the shower and then in the bedroom.»

Jensen exhaled deeply, sensing how the young woman was trying to tease him.

She didn't even touch him, she didn't even try to brush him or stretch out towards him; on the contrary, she showed bold and bizarre confidence through her tone of voice and posture, but that was more than enough to make him perfectly aware of his almost total erection to that simple idea.

«You don't know what you're asking me, Selene», the ex-SWAT said.

«Yes, I do», she replied with an incredibly more decisive attitude. «I'm just suggesting you to fuck me, Adam, nothing else.»

Jensen tightened his jaw for that sentence expressed with such firm control, the member that pulsated to the idea and memory of when during the mission he had imagined venting with Selene fantasies he hadn't thought about for a terribly long time.

Giving in to the desire to have a one-night stand with her, because that was what she was asking, was wrong on so many levels that he wanted to stop immediately to evaluate the idea. He knew that alchemy like theirs wouldn't be extinguished or mitigate with a simple _quickie_ ; on the contrary, it would risk leading them on a path they couldn't follow.

BlueDevil's niece sighed quickly, putting her hands in front of her and leaning back with her buttocks to the sink, finally showing a nod of carelessness as she broke eye contact.

«But it's okay, Adam, even if between the "I can't, I'm older than you and you're hurt", I would have preferred you to tell me that you're not interested, or that you don't find me as attractive.»

The man could barely hold back a line of surprise and a corner of his lips from rising. The young woman had come to an impulsive and tender conclusion. Letting her believe that he didn't like her physically was ironic, not when he knew he had recalled in his mind the memories of her naked body.

It was probably the best choice, the wisest, to be able to immediately counteract anything that brought them so close. A lie for good, because that was what it was all about.

_Of course. It’s so obvious that you are so unaware of your charms, little girl._

Adam gave her an apology look, along with a faint smile of understanding. It was difficult at that moment not to feel an impulse of tenderness to see Selene blush and turn her bright blue eyes to an indefinite spot while with a puff she lifted her arms to loosen the bun, letting her purple hair falling over her shoulders. She continued to move her left arm with a certain amount of care, but she seemed to be almost no longer affected by the wound.

The young woman took another look at the man in front of her, finding him intent on staring at her with what seemed to be an expression of ill-concealed fun. She crossed her arms to her chest, this time hiding her neckline.

«Don't look at me like that, Jensen. My self-esteem won’t plummet just because you said no to me, now.»

The ex-SWAT tilted his face, smiling with more condescension. _Fuck_ , she was tender beyond all expectations, and that made him dangerously aware of how much he wanted to feel that tenderness completely.

If he wasn't wrong, having sex with Selene would have been an extremely sweet, but equally vivid and intense experience, able to give him back intercourse — many intercourses, he was sure — absolutely full of initiative, discovery and warmth.

«I'd better go, now», said the man in a soft tone.

She just nodded, slightly pouty, moving one hand to invite him out of the bathroom.

The agent preferred not to linger any longer, walking quickly into the living area followed by the girl, passing the sofa, the kitchen furniture and finally the table, retrieving the coat to wear it.

While he was hanging up the front buckle of his coat, Selene approached his bag, lifting it in her right and then handed it to him as soon as Adam was near her. Artair's niece opened the front door and moved to the side, against the jamb, to let him pass.

Jensen turned to look at her once on the landing, his augmented eyes still uncovered, her eyes still a little embarrassed. He saw her react to his gaze as she lifted her left hand over her neck, a slight sneer to ripple her lips before seeing an amused smile that lit up her face.

«If you change your mind, the code of my apartment is 1408», she said in a cheerful tone, finally calmer. «You have the choice, in case, whether to let me found you naked in my bed in twenty, or to join me in the shower in five.»

Adam shook his head in a nod, realizing how much he couldn’t hold back the slanting smile that the young woman caused him.

«You are terrible», he answered. «And anyway, I already know the access code to your home. Your uncle gave it to me last night when I bothered to see if you were here, since you didn't answer your vu-phone.»

Selene remained with her mouth open for a few moments, giggling immediately afterward. «Did you enter my apartment while I was gone?»

The ex-SWAT took a long look at her, shaking his head again while reactivating the shields, not at all surprised that she wasn't disturbed by his recent admission.

«Free to change the code now», he added.

«Don't count on it», the girl teased him with a mischievous smile. «Good night, Adam.»

Jensen rolled his eyes in a motion of fake exasperation.

«Good night, Selene», he mumbled in a low tone, knowing full well that he was unconvincing.

The ex-SWAT finally reached his home almost an hour later. He got rid of his clothes in the bathroom to take a quick shower and lay down in the blankets with a long, deep sigh.

He didn't really have much difficulty falling asleep.

The problem came when he woke up, when he realized he remembered the dream he had had before he opened his eyes, while the HUD wake-up system was too annoyingly activated. While he perceived the reverberation of dreamlike moments that he had only experienced in his mind.

He had dreamed of having stayed at Selene's place.

He had dreamed of kissing her, touching her, licking her, biting her skin. Of pushing his tongue first and then his cock inside her.

He had dreamed of hearing her moaning and panting underneath him, against him, and he had dreamed of a tight, pressing rhythm. _Fucking her_ just like he had imagined, _fucking her_ just like she had wanted.

He had dreamed of hearing her scream his name, of hearing her come in a surprising way. He had dreamed of coming inside her, that longed-for orgasm — the agonizing sensation of feeling his spine _melting_ for that magnificent pleasure.

He woke up with a dry mouth and an erection hard to ignore.

He woke up alone in his bed and with the extreme need for a cold shower.

He woke up with the desire to keep dreaming to drive away that longing, in the hope that his mind would fill the desire to really let himself go to such bliss.

Being content with his dreams so as not to condemn himself in reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well then... Do you know the scene in this chapter where Selene tells Adam to find him handsome? And the one a little further on when she asks him to undress her? Well, those two sentences were the prompt for this story.  
> When I started writing this fanfiction in March 2018, the first scene I created in my mind was this one. It took me fourteen chapters to get there, about 150 thousand words (or a little more) to satisfy myself first.  
> The words Selene addresses to Adam are a direct consequence of what I believe is missing most in Jensen's life: a person who without double purpose, with pure and simple spontaneity, claims to think he is handsome — not only physically; a person who seeks in him someone to trust, to let themselves be undressed — of their torments and demons.  
> My intention is to give voice to Adam's character through my interpretation, but at the same time, I want to create Selene, give her her space, give her time.  
> In this chapter, there is all their history, the core of their events. I hope you found it as engaging as it was for me to write it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene hides her real feelings well from Artair and Vaclav, but she can't do the same with Adam. Not at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song for the chapter: [Shelby Merry - Army Of One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEF1T0Lx8OU)

Selene had spent a good part of the morning in bed, under the blankets, not so much to recover energy or rest, since the wound had healed completely while she slept, but more simply because of a personal need to brood silently and alone over the events of the night before.

She didn't regret asking Adam to have sex with her. Or maybe _yes_ , she did, since she had sensed in him an attitude of defense, as if the girl's intentions had _frightened_ him in some way. There had never been any clear signs of interest on Jensen's part, but the young woman had initially suspected that it was simply discretion. Or perhaps she had hoped it was moderate kindness.

When she had finished showering and slipped under the blankets, she knew Jensen wouldn't be coming back, and at the end of the day, she wasn't really surprised by that.

Because of the tiredness and the pain she felt, she wasn't sure how her body would have responded to having sex with a man fourteen years older than her, but she had to admit that she would have preferred to find out. Out of curiosity, out of the need not be alone, because she had felt like it. And because she had to confess above all to herself that Adam's presence was particularly pleasing to her.

They had known each other for too short a time, she knew it very well, but it was difficult to ignore everything that had brought them closer, the way and the urgency with which they approached each other.

It was hard not to think about how she reacted in his presence, or how they had moved together in the Versalife building, perfectly aware of their skills and incredibly predisposed to trust each other's dedication, even if at first it might have seemed the opposite. It was also impossible to ignore the way she hadn't hesitated for a single moment to push him away to guarantee him a way out of that place, protecting him from the first bullets and putting herself at risk.

With a sigh, as she turned supine from her right side, Selene tried to look at her left shoulder, touching it after a moment with a couple of fingers. As she had already _sensed_ , the wound had closed without a trace.

She got out of bed after a few more minutes of contemplative silence, determined to get out to Artair's house — she needed to talk to him, after what had happened, after the fear she had felt at the terrible prospect of not having any other chance, she _had_ _to_ talk to her uncle.

She quickly prepared herself after another quick shower and a cup of hot coffee, sipping the dark drink while watching the local news. Once outside, she bought some desserts in the usual grocery store and went to the relative's house dressed in comfortable and warm clothes, the purple hair tied in the usual herringbone braid and the neck protected by the ever-present grey wool scarf.

The autumn climate was changing rapidly into the increasingly harsh and inclement winter climate. On days like that, the clouds gave way to clearer and clearer air, giving the impression that the temperature was colder than expected. It wasn't unusual to feel the faint heat of the sun on the skin and at the same time feel the icy wind rushing all around.

Selene appreciated that temperature more, out of habit and real preference. She grew up finding the warmth of a blanket on her legs beautiful while reading a book or watching a movie, maybe sipping a cup of tea or hot chocolate. She had seen and played in the snow for the first time with Artair and Damian during the first winter she spent with them in the UK. She loved wearing her fake leather jacket and her boots, it was her mentor who somehow conveyed that aesthetic taste. With the heat, certain clothes had to stay locked in the closet, leaving for as long as necessary, much to her displeasure, that kind of clothing — the harmless habit of finding a little _normality_ in showing off clothes much more suitable for that type of climate.

That was her second autumn in Prague — she had spent the first when she was still living with Artair. A month later, winter would come, and she was somehow enthusiastic, strangely relaxed about it. She knew very well that she was keeping her mind busy on simple, little thoughts, but she really had no reason to forbid it, not at that moment, at least.

During the short walk, she sent a message to her uncle to warn him of the visit and when she walked through the front door left ajar, she found the man in his homely outfit, the beard shaved a few hours before and the preparation of lunch on the stove.

She watched BlueDevil approach the pot to keep an eye on the cooking and mix what looked like gravy with veal.

«Hey», he greeted her, nodding his head.

«Hey.»

Selene moved independently to arrange the freshly purchased baked pastries in a capacious bowl, opening the fridge to pour fruit juice into a glass recovered from the cupboard.

«Shall I pour some for you, too?»

«No, thank you. I've just had some coffee, but I'll have a dessert», he replied in a calm tone, taking a quick look at what his niece brought.

The young woman reached the small table, taking a seat on a chair and waiting for the relative to do the same, noting the curious look of the man once he was next to her.

«I didn't expect to see you before the afternoon», BlueDevil began. «Has something happened?», he continued, the light tone guided by a slight hint of attention.

«More or less», replied the girl, finishing her first sweet. «I don't think I told you that Vaclav offered me to work in his library. Paying me a fixed salary.»

Artair remained silent for a few moments, shaking his head in a nod of denial, taking in turn a _borůvkové knedlíčky_.

«No, you didn't tell me. When did he propose it to you?»

«The day before yesterday», she replied immediately, a quick reflection that made her silently ask if so little time had passed since that day. «When I went to his store to pay for the books I had ordered the week before. Before», she paused, a small smile on her lips, «before the rave in the suburbs.»

McTavish gave her a silent glance, an eyebrow raised to indicate how little he was convinced by those words, perfectly aware that he could simply express uncertainty and not real dissent. Not if he didn't want to get involved again in some discussion that would lead them to disagree about something — in fact, it all depended on Selene and how she would choose to react to her uncle's legitimate _apprehension._

«And?», the relative urged her, finishing eating the first blueberry dumpling.

«And I have decided that I will take the job», admitted the girl with an enthusiastic smile.

The man exhaled deeply, looking elsewhere, getting up from his chair to focus for a moment on the pot on the induction stove and then _returning_ to his niece from that short distance, his arms crossed over his chest in a curious nod and his buttocks leaning against the cupboard.

«Uhm. Are you sure?»

The young woman squeezed her shoulders in a relaxed gesture, still smiling calmly. «Vaclav is a nice boy, uncle. I get along well with him. And his double work doesn't bother me.»

The man stood on his back for a moment, shaking his head imperceptibly. He scratched his nape for a moment, subtly nervous, perhaps even agitated, returning to the table after a few more seconds and struggling to find a more comfortable position in the same chair he had occupied shortly before.

To Selene, it seemed strange to see him so uncomfortable, to watch him carrying his fingers through his honey-colored hair again in a nod of blatant uncertainty.

«Do you... Do you like Koller?», BlueDevil asked, trying to maintain eye contact despite a veil of embarrassment ripples a wrinkle on his forehead.

The niece burst out laughing, drinking a long sip of juice after having visibly denied with her head: this explained the mystery.

«No, uncle, and it's rather unusual for you to ask me this question, knowing me. Unless you mean I like him as a friend. I would tell you that we have a lot in common.»

Selene considered whether to add the rest, whether to give a concrete answer to the thoughts that Artair had surely sifted through in his mind. It was obvious that her uncle knew what had happened to her, how Sheena and Ciaran had been killed, how she had _almost_ died too.

Artair had seen her... Artair had seen how Selene had been reduced by those mercenaries. Artair knew what his niece had suffered.

«Vaclav could have...», she resumed after that rapid silence. «Vaclav could have... Well... Hit on me, two nights ago, if he had been interested. But I have the feeling that, apart from the fact that I'm probably not in his taste, he's perhaps a little uncertain about my skills.»

However, the thinking brought her to the _sore spot_ of the events of several hours earlier: is it possible that Jensen wasn't actually interested in women in a much broader sense? That he was homosexual? Maybe Adam didn't really have any interest in sex. For a long time, she hadn't felt the slightest impulse to have sex, to seek that kind of physical pleasure. Was she really so naive that she didn't possibly understand something like that?

McTavish let himself go to a vague nod of consent, a lip corner raised in a conscious smile.

«Well ... I must admit I thought, when I tracked your vu-phone to his library, that you were with him.»

Selene looked at him, waiting to hear the rest.

«That you were with Vaclav for... _That_.»

It was the young woman's turn to stiffen up in the chair, surprised that the relative let such a topic appear with her.

«You know that it isn't easy for me to get comfortable with men. You know that, if I may, I prefer a female company if I have the only intention of... Well...»

The girl moved her head for a moment in a gentle nod, thoughts still turned to the night before.

_Except with Adam. It has happened so few times in my life that I have felt so peaceful with a man._

Artair cleared his voice, swallowing a bite of the second dessert he had started to eat to try to focus on _something_ _else_. With very little result. «I know.»

He took a long, silent pause, his brown eyes probing detail of the table's wood in a vain attempt not to appear ridiculously embarrassed.

The simple idea that his niece had never made a mystery of her interest in women had never upset or bothered him, but it was still a thought that he tried not to pay more attention to than necessary. It meant that the girl, at a certain point in her life, had felt ready to welcome and live her sexuality and everything that could result from it.

«Selene», he began out of the blue. «Have you ever thought about talking to someone about what happened to you?»

The young woman gave him yet another surprised look, incredulous to see and hear the relative so willing to bring back to the surface an event that had also marked him in some way. She nodded to him quickly, finally smiling calmly.

«Yes and no», she admitted by bending her blue eyes on the table for a second, turning the glass of juice between her fingers. «It's difficult to consider that idea, to ignore the memory of when I was at Horus Field, to try to put aside the feeling of discomfort I still feel today when I think of all the doctors who tried to _enter_ my mind at that time, through that kind of sessions.»

Artair saw her smile again, the expression that conveyed both relaxation and some form of nostalgia.

«Surely with a stable job like the one in Vaclav's bookstore, my economic situation will improve enough. And I'll be able to focus on something with more continuity and commitment. I will have to inform my neighbors that I will no longer be available as a dog-sitter and interrupt the few guitar lessons I give to some customers.»

The hacker took a long look at her, trying to establish if his niece's answer was sincere. «And with performances at Crannóg?»

Selene nodded to him with her hand, nodding again. «When Řehoř wants to play at your pub, I will be there. I don't think Vaclav will be extremely fussy about my working hours if it involves leaving an hour earlier sporadically. In any case, I already know that it isn't his intention to make me work for the entire opening hours of the store, he was very clear about this. He wants to do things properly, with a contract and adequate pay.»

Artair let slip yet another nod of consent, listening to those words with attention. He got up from his chair after finishing the second pastry, reaching the hob to check the sauce. He moved slightly away to lean against the nearby cabinet again, the expression absorbed.

«Take away a curiosity», he began, his arms crossed over his chest in an apparently relaxed gesture.

The young woman leaned back in her chair, intrigued by the question the relative was about to ask her. «Sure, go on.»

«What happened between you and Adam recently?», McTavish asked.

He took a different, more serious look at her, as if he was trying to study her expression and physical responses better. Selene remained a moment too long in silence, a hesitation that was also evident in her blue eyes. However, Artair had some difficulty in interpreting her behavior, not entirely sure what he could extrapolate from that quick nod.

«I told him everything», she finally said.

BlueDevil was uncertain, the look cautious. «Everything?»

«We can trust Adam, if that's what you're wondering», Selene said in a slightly lower voice.

Her mind was overwhelmed by every little moment spent with the agent, like a pleasant rain where to find refreshment after a sultry day. Like the rain under which they had taken refuge on the roof of that building after rediscovering themselves terribly close, not only physically.

McTavish nodded again, barely bending his face on the floor in front of him.

«Actually, I wanted to get your opinion on that.» He looked at his niece another instant, scrutinizing her. «Did you face each other? I mean, did you really fight each other?»

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders, giggling. «I wanted to test his skills», she answered with a half-truth, minimally cheered by the fact that Artair wasn't particularly good at understanding whether she was lying or not.

As much as she regretted telling him lies, she knew how best to keep quiet about certain details of her private life. The relative wouldn't be approved of such involvement, he wouldn't approve of her interest, he wouldn't understand why she felt so willing to give Adam something she was struggling to name.

«He's definitely strong, uncle. Very capable. And I'll continue to admit without problems that his help yesterday in the Versalife facility was invaluable.»

BlueDevil raised one corner of his lips again, barely sneering. «You don't need to convince me to keep Adam on the _team_. Unless you're implicitly telling me... You find his company equally enjoyable. Perhaps much more pleasant than Vaclav's.»

 _Okay_ , maybe Artair was simply pretending not to _understand_ a large slice of his niece's emotions.

It was once again Selene's turn to move slightly on the chair, taking off her jacket to put it on the backrest and overlapping one leg over the other, certain that the visit would last longer than expected.

«What exactly are you asking me?», she began with a slightly tense voice. «Do you want to know if I like Adam?»

Artair let slip a sudden cough, giggling at the end for that subtly cheeky and bitter tone, not quite sure to identify in her irony addressed to him or to the idea of admitting something that seemed instead to bother her, as if the thought of finding really beautiful the company of the ex-SWAT was definitely nerve-wracking for her.

«Selene, as much as my affection for you puts me in front of the extreme need to tell you to be on your guard against people like him, I know you wouldn't listen to me anyway.»

The girl burst out laughing, raising a hand in a nod of carelessness. «Good heavens, uncle! You know I always joke about such things!»

_Lie, keep lying. Keep playing. You don't want him to understand how far you've gone, you don't want him to understand that you asked Adam to have sex with you. He can't figure it out on his own, can he?_

The man sighed, crossing his arms to his chest, bending his face towards the contents of the pot that was lazily boiling. «I know, but I seemed to notice a... Um... Rather particular chemistry among you two.»

The niece answered first with a nod of consent and then verbally, the look deliberately quiet. «And it is so, but I'd say it is because of the way we both face difficulties. Adam and I are fighters.»

The pause that followed made her look at the almost empty glass in front of her, a few amounts of juice on the bottom. Her thoughts continued to return to Jensen more vehemently than expected.

«I can't say for sure», began the girl in a soft tone, «but I think he was unhappy with his augmentations for a long time: it wasn't his choice but, if I didn't misunderstand, the grafts saved his life. Probably, however, he wondered at the exhaustion at what price. I cannot say if it's easier for him now. Maybe yes, maybe no.»

Artair gave her a condescending smile, sighing: when Selene felt comfortable with a new person, she began to show much more openly empathy and kindness, genuinely _unable_ to hide that spontaneous and tender response. It was something that BlueDevil had learned to recognize over time.

«You two talked a lot, huh?», he asked her with a curious smile.

«Most of the time, I did the talking», ironized the young woman, shrugging her shoulders in an amused gesture, «but you know I'm good at reading between the lines. Maybe not in a precise way, but I can manage.»

Selene moved her gaze to the door leading to the bedroom, drinking the last leftovers of the drink in the glass before continuing.

«Are you already working on the data obtained yesterday?», she asked to deliberately change the topic, hoping that for the relative the discussion could be considered totally concluded.

The uncle answered positively with a nod of the head. «I'm checking that there are no unpleasant IT surprises.»

After another pause, just dampened by a deeper breath, he decided to focus attention on an important issue.

«You are aware that what happened the last night tell us that someone has even the slightest trace of the Hymeneal Plan.»

The girl remained silent for a few seconds, her hands tapped on the glass distractedly, a quick sigh before resuming her speech. «Yes. Deep in my heart, I think I've always known.»

The hacker turned again to the stove, the wooden spoon in one hand to stir slowly.

«We will stop them. We won’t let someone else does to others what was done to you.»

«Unless it's already happening, uncle», she replied in a slightly lower tone. «After all, I am alive, but how many children before me have died during their mother's pregnancy, or during childbirth, or in the first days, months or years of their lives.»

She shook her head in a hint of slight discomfort, moving the glass away from her reach so as not to risk breaking it with those slight nervous movements. Talking about Horus Field still had the power to _destroy her_ mentally, with obvious repercussions on everything around her.

«How many parents have died besides mine? And how many are still in danger of suffering the same fate? How many men like Damian will be forced to choose between their life and a _job_ that cannot be considered as such? And how many people like you risk not having any more news of a relative all of a sudden?»

Artair remained silent, placing the domestic tool on the shelf and approaching the table to take his place on the previously occupied chair.

«I know you're worried, but try not to think about it.»

The man exhaled visibly, extending a hand towards his niece, waiting. Selene observed him with a renewed motion of surprise, amazed by such a request, but when she decided to reach her uncle's fingers with her own, she felt a little calmer.

«I didn't apologize for what I said the other night», BlueDevil began. «You know, when Adam and I showed up at the rave...»

The girl squeezed the grip of her palm a little smaller than that of her relative, smiling at him with kindness. «There's no need for that, uncle. I'm sorry if I made you worry.»

The man nodded, responding to the glance with an equally warm smile, deeply pleased to experience that closeness and sincerity with her.

Artair could really count on the fingers of one hand the times when the girl and he had given in to those feelings, too similar not to resent some stupid form of pride. In an attempt to protect each other from the evils of the world, they had often risked turning away from each other.

«I don't want to play the hypocrite», McTavish resumed shortly afterward. «You know very well that I also gave in to my own... Well... Vices, in the past, but don't let yourself be carried away too much by the artificial paradises that you can easily find around you. And I'm not only referring to alcohol or drugs.»

Selene showed a curious expression, tilting her face to one side as she continued to hold her hand over that of her relative. «You know that my body cannot suffer certain effects.»

«Yes, I know, but I also refer to the fact that... Well...» McTavish shook his head, withdrawing his arm after having intensified for a moment the grip on the girl's fingers. «I don't want this war to consume you, Selene.»

The niece, in turn, brought her hand close to her, raising the other palm over her face, resting her elbow on the table to hold her head in a relaxed movement.

«I might even agree with you, uncle, because I know how well I deserve a less dangerous life. Like you, after all. But the fact that I have developed these abilities, these strengths and these powers... It seems to me correct to choose to make a difference and to intervene.»

McTavish lowered his head, his gaze lost again on the detail of the wood of the table, incredibly softened by the purity he could admire in his niece and her spontaneous words.

«Well, it is during these moments that I understand how much of your mother is in you. You have inherited your father's _gifts_ , but your courage and fortitude all come from Sheena.»

Selene leaned better against the hand that held her chin, softening her gaze. «And her obstinacy, it seems», she added with a smile of understanding.

«Yes, that too», chuckled Artair, deciding to take the third dessert from the bowl, eating it with two quick bites. «You know», he added after that brief moment of silence between them, «it's nice that you came here to me today. Would you like to stay for lunch?»

«With extreme pleasure», admitted Selene, deeply cheered by the perspective.

It gave her an immense sensation of peace and quiet to know that when she was feeling more lonely and _tired_ she could still count on the closeness and company of Artair: they didn't always get along well, they couldn't always settle their differences, letting themselves be guided by proud composure and the need to protect each other, but the young girl was able to put aside herself and her temper to live completely, even for a few hours, the affection she had for her uncle.

Those moments of _love_ were the only thing she had left of a family, and she could deny neither herself nor Artair how desperately they both needed them. She wanted to experience everything she had been unable to experience as a child, in an ephemeral need to restore some normality to her existence.

In her mind, she could count among the most beautiful and tender memories she lived with her uncle, small corners of paradise that enclosed car trips, Sunday lunches in some park outside the city, funny attempts to teach him to play the guitar and for her to learn to paint, dirtying each other with the colors of the palette.

She remembered with a smile the period she had begun to tattoo herself, to dye her hair, to claim her own individuality and personality, all moments in which Artair, despite an initial complaint, had been present, ready to stand beside her. She loved her uncle, and was deeply grateful to have him in her life.

Selene had never dared to tell him openly what she felt. On the one hand, she was afraid of being silly and childish, perhaps too attached to the figure of her uncle, and on the other, she didn't really feel able to put her thoughts, her words in order. She was afraid to engage in a stupid, rambling speech and _take_ Artair away from her.

During the stay at BlueDevil's home, she simply helped him with the preparation of a few more meals, to share the time they were about to spend together without making that visit too complicated.

The man explained to her in detail that, after completing the verification of the data recollected the night before, he would choose what to do next. The idea of asking for help from the Juggernaut Collective for the military structure in Russia was the most reasonable one, but the hacker preferred to wait for an official answer from Adam before embarking on that _path_ on his own.

«I'll send him a message to let him know when we can talk in person», McTavish added as he retrieved a jug from the pantry to fill with fresh water and red wine to accompany the sauce with the meat.

Selene finished setting the table for two, smiling. «I can text him, if you want. I would like to inquire about that combat armor of his.»

The circular hole in her vest had to be patched: she knew she couldn't say anything to Artair, especially because if the relative hadn't given her the third degree about her health, it meant that Jensen had _really_ kept silent about the wound caused by the turret.

She wondered why, exactly, the agent had kept such detail from BlueDevil.

Maybe she would have asked him.

The idea made her smile.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Once Selene left her uncle's apartment, she took her vu-phone from the jacket pocket while she was still in the elevator, her left forearm effortlessly holding a small transparent plastic bag where Artair had placed a few food containers with what was left of the lunch.

She quickly typed a message to Adam, aware that she couldn't call him directly, since she didn't know whether or not the man was busy.

" _Thank you for not saying anything to my uncle about the wound. About this, if you know someone here in Prague who can patch my tactical vest, could you give me the address? And, no less important, Artair would like to know when you can go to him to discuss the next steps. Contact him whenever you want._ "

The young woman sent the text after a primordial moment of hesitation, entering the street after passing the door of the building, heading to the nearest metro station to reach the Koller bookstore. She wanted to inform the young man of her decision immediately.

Finding the boy beyond the desk to the left of the Time Machine entrance, next to the ground floor windows, reminded her of the way they had decided to go to the rave two days earlier. She couldn't help but smile enthusiastically as she approached at a calm pace.

Vaclav lifted his face from the computer, his scrambled hair and his slightly creased clothes made no mystery of his punk style. She saw him place a pen and a notebook in A4 format on the shelf, passing the table in quick steps.

«Oh, Selene, you are my salvation. Have you brought me food?»

The girl giggled in response: theoretically, what inside those food containers was for her, but observing Vaclav's hopeful expression convinced her to give him the bag.

«More or less, but I have nothing to drink. I have already eaten, though, so it's all for you.»

«Let's go in the back, then», he proposed.

He wrapped his black arm around her shoulders in a purely affectionate and sudden gesture, moving together in the room surrounded by shelves and books.

The doctor retrieved a fork, knife and spoon after checking what kind of lunch he would eat, leaving Selene free to choose her drink; Koller preferred to opt for a coke, while his guest for a cold beer.

At Artair's house, she had avoided wine out of simple scruples, she didn't want to give her relative the impression that she needed to drink alcohol so lightly, but with Vaclac she knew she could act with greater peace of mind without unleashing any worry. It was enough for her to remember the evenings at Crannóg to remind of how her uncle used to scold her punctually when she indulged in more than just cocktails.

The boy took his place on a slightly higher stool, while Selene simply leaned with her hips against the desk not far away. The scent of the sauce made the young girl smile again and caused in the doctor a long verse of appreciation instead.

«Did you cook it yourself?», he asked in an ecstatic tone.

«No, it was my uncle, but he learned from me during the years we lived together», replied the young woman with a fake modesty, raising her chin and beer can in a nod of understanding.

The first bitter sip pinched her tongue and went down her throat causing a widespread sense of warmth, making her shoulders tighten still covered by the fake leather jacket.

Vaclav grabbed his first bites in silence, making his appreciation clear with a couple of sound verses and half-closing his eyes on several occasions, until he looked at the young woman.

«I'll have to compliment the cook. Have you had lunch with him?» A moment of hesitation made him stop, the expression just doubtful. «Wait, this was for you? To take home?»

Selene denied with her head, a relaxed smile on her lips. «I already have my share in the fridge, don't worry», she lied in a calm tone. «I knew you would appreciate it.»

«Oh, undoubtedly», he admitted, resuming eating with pleasure and a fair amount of voracity. «So, what can you tell me? Did you and Artair clear things up after the evening at the rave?»

«Yes, all solved», replied Selene while drinking a long sip of beer. «Last night Jensen and I infiltrated a Versalife facility to look for some information, followed at a distance by my uncle.»

The girl moved her head in an imperceptible nod, sipping again.

«I had had a vague idea of Adam's skills, but seeing him in action was quite amazing.»

Vaclav chuckled for a moment, finishing the sauce with the meat in a few more bites, nodding as he chewed.

«Personally, I never had the pleasure of seeing him using his grafts, but I know what he is capable of.»

He took out of the bag the second container, an omelet with cheese, mushrooms and parsley, starting to eat it without much ceremony.

«And what did you find in the structure?», he asked.

Selene let a half-smile slip by, turning the can between her fingers. «Armed guards, computer data to analyze extracted by my uncle, a turret activated by my genetic code: I'd say "the usual stuff", but I don't know how much you know.»

Koller burst out laughing again, taking a break to drink his coke.

«Very little, indeed, and from a certain point of view I prefer to avoid info that is too detailed.» He gave her an amused look, scrutinizing her. «But I am pleased to see that you are still in one piece.»

The girl nodded, taking a long sip in turn, thinking how providential the help of the ex-SWAT had been to her.

«Yeah, me too. I have to say that without Adam, I don't know if I would have been able to get out of there.»

The doctor stood on his back, staring at her for a few moments with an expression at first intrigued and then slightly apprehensive. Something in the tone of BlueDevil's niece led him to believe that she had been in serious danger.

«Really?»

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders with a motion of carelessness, ending the beer with a long, silent sip.

«Obviously my uncle was also fundamental», she added afterward calmly, the amused expression.

The boy gave her a doubtful look before accepting with a nod the words he had just heard, resuming eating the portion of the omelet without even cutting it, biting it smugly directly from the fork.

Selene burst out laughing at the scene, throwing the empty can into the trash. «I prepared that one myself, though.»

Vaclav mumbled some ecstatic noises, causing her an even wider and more sonorous laugh, giving her a decidedly invigorating good mood.

She had done well to accept his job offer: she couldn't wait to tell him, but she preferred to wait until the boy finished eating, because she was quite sure that Koller would be just as happy in his own way. Perhaps he sensed her thoughts, or reflected on the same topic, because as soon as he swallowed the last bite, he gave her a long, attentive look.

«So, I know I'm at risk of being pushy, but do you have an answer for me?», asked the doctor with hopeful eyes.

Selene bit her lower lip to try to hide her wide smile, unnecessarily. She took a deep breath, crossing her arms to her chest.

«Do you need papers or some photos? Or do I just need to sign somewhere?»

The boy got up from the stool with a sudden movement, moving in front of her with fast steps to claim a sudden hug that lasted less than a moment.

«I am so happy that you agreed to work with me. So, I assume you've talked to Artair about it.»

«Exactly, and I must say that, apart from an initial uncertainty, he seemed quite sure about it, too.»

The young girl giggled again, stretching her hands to catch the augmented Koller one that had only three fingers, intrigued by its shape.

«Perhaps he is a little worried about the influence we might have on each other, but I think we will be perfectly capable of handling an excess of social life, if it should try to manifest itself.»

Vaclav nodded, letting her study the robotic end without any fear, indeed, intimately cheered by the fact that she was willing to approach even that part of him without showing detachment or disgust.

«Absolutely, also because the store opens at nine in the morning and closes at ten in the evening. Closing day on Sunday.»

He tilted his face with a relaxed expression, responding to the blue gaze of the hacker's niece.

«Also, when I am very busy with my patients in my laboratory, you will be the one who will take care of the library. But don't worry that we will respect the agreed-upon hours, I won't let you stay longer than expected.»

The girl responded to his look with another smile. «About this, I got some questions.»

They briefly discussed a few points that Selene considered important enough, although Koller tried to maintain a purely friendly tone and not as boss/employee — the possibility that she would continue to perform at Crannóg was also in the doctor's interest. And although Selene's words were jokingly spoken, the young man really wanted to enter into a regular employment contract, so he needed some documents that the young woman had at home just out of sheer scruples.

«Bring them to me tonight just before closing and afterward we go together to the Svobody bar to celebrate your hiring. I promise you that we will be at home before midnight. We will behave», said Koller, excited about the idea.

Selene rolled her eyes with an amused look, aware of how much that future and brief outing could reflect the outcome of many other evenings after work.

Feeling in some way certain of such dynamics undoubtedly left her reassured, as if even the simple idea that she could have a normal job gave her that peace of mind that she felt a fair lack of. She certainly didn't forget the words she had addressed to her uncle a few hours earlier, she knew how much a large part of her would always be ready to return to the battlefield to face the people who had made her _different,_ but at the same time, she knew she had to give importance and room to more common and simple situations.

When she returned to her apartment, about an hour or so later, she simply grouped what Vaclav had requested on the table in a folder. She spent the afternoon doing home chores she had previously ignored, enjoying some peace of mind listening to music through the speaker system connected to her laptop.

She sent e-mails to people she had business contacts with, as a dog-sitter and acoustic guitar teacher, to warn them about her new professional situation, and in the end, she relaxed before dinner watching a movie, preparing a quick meal that she always ate on the couch, her legs crossed in front of her and a hand with which she occasionally activated the vu-phone screen to check the time.

When she changed to go out again, she wore warmer clothes and the usual soft scarf to cover her neck, always keeping her hair gathered in the usual herringbone braid.

She reached the Time Machine about ten minutes before closing. Vaclav greeted her with the smile she was getting used to, guiding her upstairs to store her papers in the private office desk and to complete some of the first bureaucratic paperwork.

Once back on the street, by foot to the pub that Koller had proposed, Selene studied more carefully the environment of the Překážka district.

Since she lived in Prague, she had never reached that part of the city to spend an evening in the company of someone, but she knew how the streets of that place were still a clear example of the _treatment_ given to the augmented people. Still noticing a more massive presence of armed cops and homeless with grafts, many of them visibly suffering from rejection syndrome, could only give her a taste of what it meant to live in that district.

The memory of the Incident crept into her mind without control, making her remember what had personally happened to her that day: at least, from that point of view, she felt much luckier than others, having to admit that she had definitely avoided the worst of that situation together with Artair and Damian.

It was absolutely inconceivable for her to hate someone just because they were _different_ ; even if she hadn't really directly suffered much more serious consequences of the collective madness that had struck the augmented people that day two years earlier, she was certain that, in the opposite case, she couldn't have felt intimidated or threatened by them anyway. She was sure of it.

People like Vaclav made that certainty more important and stable than any doubt or possible ignorance. Some would have called her naive, and in the past, she had heard such comments from individuals she had occasionally exchanged a few words with at Crannóg — clients who didn’t find acceptable the idea that among the patrons of the pub there were also some augmented customers; clients who had been turned away and invited not to set foot in there again by Artair.

It was nice to know she could do the right thing and not be afraid to be the only one doing it. It gave her more courage and self-confidence, and part of her knew how important it was to let go of those feelings. It gave her the strength to stand by Koller's side with her head held high, ready to defend him if necessary.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

The Svobody bar definitely looked picturesque.

The entrance was surmounted on the outside by an upturned blue boat, creating a sort of roof that extended beyond the wall colored green and decorated with white pillars. The main room had the bar on the opposite side of the door, next to an open access that could presumably be closed through the security maglock on the side. The floor was made of wood and covered here and there with rather large red carpets, the square tables arranged along the left wall already housed several people intent on drinking their orders. On the right wall, there were some very imposing barrels, but Selene couldn't say whether they had a purely aesthetic purpose or whether they contained some kind of alcohol. From the ceiling hung two more upside-down boats and several carefully arranged oars, along with what appeared to be a bear fur. A stuffed eagle on the counter, a deer head hanging above the tables and elk antlers on the shelf containing the colored bottles completed the rest of the room.

Teresa, the bartender, had served the girl and Koller with kindness and friendliness, suggesting they go to the basement if they wanted to sit down. Finding a billiard table in that large space excited Selene the most, happy to note that no one was using it. Vaclav seemed to read her mind, because he suggested playing a quiet game between a sip of beer and constant chatter.

She had got rid of her fake leather jacket and scarf, leaving them on the nearby shelf to move around better, and was already playing for about twenty minutes when she heard the ringing of her vu-phone spreading throughout the room, making a mistake because of the sudden sound and causing the boy to laugh out loud.

She took the device between the fingers of her right hand, reading the name on the screen with a small tremor to shake her shoulders, leaning the pool cue against the nearby wall for a moment before responding.

«Hey, Adam», she replied, her tone kept relaxed and friendly.

The agent's voice calmly spread in her ear. She listened to it and recognized it as if it was extremely familiar, another sudden shudder to lap her shoulders.

« _Hello, Selene. I read your message shortly after you sent it to me, but I couldn't call you earlier._ »

«You didn't really need to contact me», she added, trying to put the same friendly and relaxed expression in words, and trying to ignore the slight sensation of discomfort she felt in her stomach instead.

Jensen took a break, during which the girl responded to Vaclav's look with a nod of her hand.

« _I just got out of Crannóg, I talked to Artair, but I should also talk to you. Are you at home?_ »

«Uh, no. I'm with Vaclav at the Svobody Bar in the Překážka district», she answered, her eyebrows slightly frowned because of the strange feeling that was still poured into her chest.

« _Oh._ » Jensen silenced again for a short while, as if something had distracted him for an instant. « _Yes, I know it. It's near the apartment building where I live. The time of the subway and I'll join you._ »

Another brief second gave Selene time to sense that there was something in the ex-SWAT's thoughts.

« _Unless I’m intruding._ »

The young woman resumed herself for a moment, almost piqued by those words: something suggested that the agent was thinking that she was in Koller's company for a very wrong reason.

Maybe Adam believed that Selene used to ask a man to have sex with her and then fall back on another person if the answer from the first one was negative. At the end of the day, he didn't know her well enough to know that, but the idea left her considerably upset.

«Absolutely not, we're celebrating I've found a stable and continuous job», she said, trying to keep a relaxed voice, knowing full well to be instead a bit monotone. «At your doctor's library, for the record.»

The man at the other end of the line remained silent again for a few more seconds, finally beginning with an uncertain exclamation. « _Ah._ »

Selene perceived in that simple and monosyllabic verbal expression an immense amount of emotions, but although she understood how much Jensen was legitimately _overwhelmed_ by different thoughts, she was obviously unable to establish by phone which one was predominant. In truth, she wasn’t even sure if she would be able to understand it in his presence.

«So», she added, in a deliberately relaxed tone, «you are automatically invited to join the party. Nothing too lavish. We're having a beer and playing pool, but we'll each be at home before midnight», she concluded, casting a glance at Vaclav to see him nod to the implied proposal.

The agent waited a moment longer, a faint sigh that reached her ear, where the device was pressed. « _All right, I'm on my way._ »

Adam closed the call without adding anything else, without giving her time to answer him with some temporary greeting, leaving the young woman rather bewildered and perplexed as she put her mobile back in her jacket pocket and took the small red beer to drink a couple of long sips — absolutely necessary, if she had to be honest.

Koller approached her with an intrigued expression, a raised lip corner and the pool cue between his fingers with the round end of the handle resting on the ground.

«So... Did you really convince Jensen to come here?»

Selene responded to the boy's gaze by squeezing herself barely in the shoulders in a gesture of sufficiency.

«He has to talk to me, I think about the same thing he talked about with my uncle.» She shook her head in an uncertain nod. «I hope it’s for this.»

Vaclav gave her a sudden smile, the corresponding eyebrow that followed the curve of the mouth in emulating the amused gesture. «I wouldn't swear, but you seem strangely nervous.»

Selene left the glass on the shelf and took back the pool cue previously left near the wall. «It's your imagination.»

They played quietly for about thirty minutes before the boy looked up from the slightly bent figure of Artair's niece to the person coming down the stairs.

The young woman sent two balls into the hole with a single hit, letting slip a cheered exclamation accompanied by a movement that involved the whole body in a short jump on the spot.

«Hey, did you see that? I'm starting to warm myself up!»

When her blue eyes moved over Koller, he nodded towards the access just behind her; she turned with the cue in her hands, seeing the figure of Adam approaching a couple of steps.

The ex-SWAT wore the usual coat, dark pants underneath it and a shirt of the same color with a collar that covered slightly the lower portion of the neck. His eyes were hidden by the shields, but despite the impossibility to see his expression completely, he looked tired.

The girl observed him for a moment, realizing that a shy smile formed on her lips ever since she had seen him.

«Hey, you're here. Do you want to join the match?», she proposed.

Jensen made a quick nod of dissent with his head, pointing shortly afterward with one hand at the bar of that basement floor of the pub. «No, I'll get a drink. Do you want anything else?»

Selene reached out one hand to retrieve her beer, the mug half-full. «No, still have this one.»

«Neither do I, Jensen, but thanks anyway», followed Vaclav, even though his drink had already ended a while ago; between the two of them, he was the one who played less, since the young girl had proved to be better than expected.

The agent reached the bartender and ordered for himself as the girl moved around the table to choose which move to proceed with. When Adam returned to them with a glass filled with amber liquid and took his place on a stool, Selene tried to ignore again the strange sensation in her chest and, in that case, in her mind. She didn't send any ball into the hole, puffing and causing the other boy a subdued giggle instead.

«It was a sure hit, how did you miss it?», Koller teased her.

She squeezed her shoulders, rolling her eyes. «I try not to apply too much force to it. Do you know I risk opening the velvet of the table if I don't control myself?»

Vaclav burst out laughing loudly, tapping his red hand on the corresponding thigh. «Oh God, it would be fun to see you do that.»

«Oh, yes, very funny», she continued with one corner of her lips raised as she retrieved her beer from the other side, calmly taking a couple of sips.

She couldn't say for sure whether Jensen was looking in her direction, but his face certainly was. She approached the agent with a calm step, the cue in one hand and the mug in the other, placing it on the nearby shelf after another sip.

«So», began Selene with a relaxed tone; or at least, she tried to be relaxed, but something in the inscrutable expression of the ex-SWAT made her realize that she had given an entirely different impression. «What do you need to talk to me about?»

The man barely tilted his face, his lips surrounded by his beard were a straight line that gave no sign of bending at all. With the shields on his eyes, it was quite difficult to completely decipher the whole face, but perhaps it was just the obvious tiredness that emanated from the rest of his body that gave her some elements to _focus_ on.

«Later», he answered. «Keep having fun, don't worry.»

His voice had been kind and friendly, almost caring.

Selene observed him for a moment, still perceiving that subtle anxiety licking her stomach and mind, nodding and resuming her beer, drinking more decisively until almost finishing it.

It was Koller who won the game about ten minutes later, but only because the girl sent the white ball into the hole. The doctor left the cue on the table and raised his hands as a sign of victory, while Artair's niece gave him a frown, her free palm nervously scratched the back of her neck. Adam raised a corner of his lips to the scene, his eyebrows just beyond the shields that seemed more relaxed.

«Perfectly match», exulted the boy with an amused tone, putting the cue in its place.

The young McTavish just puffed, performing the same action after a few moments, shaking her head. «Sure, just because you won.»

«Because you made some mistakes», continued Vaclav, poking her with his red hand on her left shoulder. «Take it as a teaching of life. If you make a mistake, someone else wins.»

Selene crossed her arms to her chest with fake boredom, smiling without being able to avoid it.

«It's the most _fucked-up_ teaching I've ever heard, but I don't think I can expect anything better from you», she replied, sticking her tongue out.

«Hey», he complained. «Is this how you treat your boss? You are impertinent.»

«Don't expect me to bring you coffee, as of Monday», she told him with a firm nod of consent.

They had moved close to Jensen while exchanging those short, playful jokes, the corresponding cheerful expressions, along with that of the man who finally seemed a little relaxed in turn.

«I don't count on it», continued Koller, his arms crossed over his chest as she had done just before. «At the first chance, you would put salt in my mug.»

Selene burst out laughing, extending a hand to place a light pat on his shoulder, taking care to minimize her physical strength.

«Don't tease my mischievous soul, I could really play tricks on you.»

Vaclav took a very genuine look at her, raising an eyebrow in a confident nod, aware of how much he would _hold her_ with the next answer. «I'll lower your pay.»

The girl widened her eyes, stretching her hands over the young man to shake his red arm with fake despair. «Oh, no. I promise I'll behave.»

Adam exhaled soundly, finishing his whisky in a moment and leaving the glass on the shelf behind him. He looked at the two in front of him for a few seconds before shaking his head in a slight denial movement, aimed purely at himself, not at them.

«So, it's true», Jensen intervened with kindness, showing affability.

Selene looked at him, curious — _agitated_ to hear him start the speech they were about to bring back to the surface. «What? That I will work at the Time Machine?»

The agent nodded with a rapid movement, a visibly raised eyebrow addressed at his doctor. «Are you sure about this?»

Koller nodded energetically in turn, lifting the arm previously touched by the young girl to carry it around her shoulders and hold her equally vividly.

«I was the one who suggested it. I need a hand in the store», he replied without any delay, the expression clearly convinced.

Artair's niece just smiled, still remarkably enthusiastic about the idea.

«You'll regret it the first time I drop something», she added, looking up from below, wrapping one arm around the boy's waist.

An action that didn't escape Jensen and that Selene performed out of simple spontaneity — and that pinch of initiative necessary to not give the impression of being refractory to respond to physical contact.

The doctor made a gesture of carelessness, amused. «You don't seem like a clumsy person.»

«I'm not, but it will be fun to see how you react when something like that happens», she teased him, finally biting her lower lip as she enjoyed Koller's fake frown.

Vaclav replied with a vague nod of his hand, loosening his embrace and moving to reach his jacket under the girl's perplexed gaze. «All right, it's time for me to go home. I leave you to your stuff.»

Selene stayed still, taking a look at Adam and then at the doctor, amazed that the boy had decided out of the blue to leave so quickly: he must have sensed Jensen's need to talk to her in private.

Adam didn't move from the stool but followed in the same way the doctor's movement, the carbon hands relaxed just above the raised thighs, the feet protected by the boots hoisted on the small cylindrical wooden planks.

«Good night, guys», said Vaclav with a cheerful face, reaching and climbing the stairs with a calm step after a few more seconds.

Selene kept her gaze on the spot where Koller had _disappeared_ for longer than necessary, finally turning to the ex-SWAT with a kind of reluctance. She continued to feel a slight form of uneasiness, not at all diminished by the fact that the man was again showing an indecipherable expression.

Perhaps Adam sensed something because a sigh just a little faster broke the straight line of his lips and his augmented eyes were visible in an instant.

«Hey...», he made with a low tone, the expression suddenly softened.

The young woman resumed herself slightly, a quick sense of surprise at the sight of those _alien_ irises so expressive.

«Ha-Hey», she answered. «So, tell me everything.»

The man hesitated for a moment, tilting his face to one side a few inches, observing her. Selene would pay any credit to really know what he was thinking, to understand why his expression was suddenly so similar to the one shown the night before, when he had held her in that longed-for embrace.

«How is your shoulder?», he asked her calmly, determined to make sure first of all that the girl wasn’t possibly neglecting some complications caused by the wound.

«Fine», she said, taking a quick look at what she could see of that part of her body, the open black sweatshirt on a burgundy-colored shirt with a soft round neckline. «Healed perfectly without leaving marks.»

The agent nodded imperceptibly, looking for a moment at an inaccurate point to his right, on the edge of the pool table. When he returned to the young woman, he let out a quick sigh.

«I wanted to talk to you about the request you made to me today by message.»

Selene reached out one hand to approach a stool, sitting on it in front of him, not at all struggling to find a comfortable position despite her short stature.

«For my combat vest, right?»

The ex-SWAT confirmed with a nod. «I know someone here in Prague, but I won’t be able to accompany you to this person.»

The girl squeezed herself in the shoulders, suggesting that it wasn’t necessary. «I can go there alone, if you give me the address.»

«No, I'd rather not», Jensen replied immediately. «I'd be more comfortable if maybe your uncle would accompany you, but in this case, you should tell him why your vest has a hole in the collarbone.»

Selene looked at him for a second with a slightly darkened expression, finally bowing her face in a gesture of uncertainty. «Look, I know I should tell him, but...»

«But you're worried that he might worry too much and decide to oust you again. I know», he interrupted her. «I admit I thought so too, but I can't stop you from staying away from your _war_. At least this way I'll still be able to keep an eye on you, if we continue to collaborate.»

Young McTavish lowered her head further, avoiding the agent's direct gaze for a while. The way he was looking at her had something different, like a strange sadness that the man was allowing her to see. As if he thought there was some reason not to maintain that co-op _relationship_.

«And this brings me to the main reason why I had to talk to you», Adam added, drawing the attention of the girl, who stared at him again trying to maintain a relaxed attitude. «On Sunday afternoon I leave for a mission with TF29.»

Selene couldn't avoid her lips to bend slightly in a nod of obvious disappointment, standing up on the stool in an attempt to make the movement of her body more noticeable and not that little pout of hers.

« _Next_ Sunday? The day after tomorrow?»

«Yes, on November twenty-five», confirmed Jensen, the hands that had a momentary tremor as he closed his fists.

«Oh. Okay», she did, moving slightly to rest her palms directly between her legs wrapped in heavy jeans.

She swung her feet covered with boots in a gesture that gave her a clearly childlike connotation.

«I assume my uncle knows that too, if you went to Crannóg first.»

Jensen nodded again, observing her for a few seconds in silence, the green-gold gaze that lingered in the non-verbal communication of Selene's body: it was so obvious how much she was unprepared for the scenario that was emerging from that dialogue.

«Yes, we both agree that it's better to wait for my return before coming back to action», he added with a reasonable frown, the obvious intent that he wanted to convince her of how wise that decision was.

The girl looked at him in turn, biting her lower lip unintentionally.

«Okay, all right. When should you come back?», she asked in an even more uncertain tone.

Adam shook his head, hesitating. «This is the actual problem. I don’t know.»

Selene gave him a brief, silent glance, frowning just before letting other questions slip by. «Will you be alone? Will it be a dangerous mission?»

The man initially gave her a new inscrutable nod, smiling shortly afterward as he turned his face to a point on the nearest wall. He seemed almost to feel a sort of relief in hearing that latent apprehension in her tone.

«No, it's a team mission, but it will take time.»

Artair's niece waited for him to add more information, but when she realized that he wouldn’t, she decided to repeat the other question. «Will it be dangerous?»

The ex-SWAT still studied her with that look, a quick return to when, even with the shields off, he could still show an elusive attitude. Yet that was enough for him to feel the same corner of his lips lifting as before, with that little smile.

«Like any field mission.» He paused, scrutinizing her for longer than expected, knowing full well that he couldn't avoid softening his traits. «You don't have to worry about me, Selene.»

The girl moved again on the stool, aware that she was blushing slightly, trying to mask her reaction by frowning and raising a hand in a vague, careless gesture.

«I know, I know. You're big and all, and you kick the _bad guys_ ' asses like it's nothing.»

She swallowed to try to return to a less excited tone of voice and to be able to look at the agent without showing that little sulk of disappointment again.

«Artair and I will wait for you, don't worry.»

The man was subtly surprised: something in her tone and movements gave him the feeling that in truth Selene had wanted to say something else, to include only herself in that last sentence, omitting instead the _presence_ of McTavish.

As if he had been able to hear the words between the lines: " _I will wait for you..._ "

He gave her a light smile before getting up, giving her a carbon hand to invite her to do the same.

«Come on, it's getting late. Even if I leave Sunday afternoon, tomorrow I have to go to the office. I'll take you to the metro station.»

«It isn't necessary», said the young woman, following the example of the other without accepting the contact with his carbon palm.

She overcame him to reach the clothes left in a corner, wearing the scarf with quick movements and doing the same with the fake leather jacket, checking the vu-phone for simple shrewdness, to _distract herself_ on something else, the hands that remained in the pockets even when she returned closer to the agent.

Jensen had been waiting for her in the same spot, without even moving near the stairs, covering his gaze with shields. They reached the road together, but Selene stopped as soon as she realized that the man really intended to accompany her to the subway.

«Seriously, Adam. You don't need to come with me», she assured in a calm voice, her fingers just tightened into the pockets of her jacket.

«It's a few steps, it's not a problem», he admitted.

The agent shook his head in a nod of dissent, indicating the path to take.

«I know you can take care of yourself, but there are more desperate people in this district than you can imagine. The police could be bothering you at this hour if they think you're augmented.»

The young woman hesitated a moment before nodding and walking with the ex-SWAT again. She thought that he would accompany her only up to the entrance of the stairs downhill, but she remained silent when she noticed that the man reached the turnstiles with her and when she saw him continue to the entrances to the wagons.

Selene moved a couple of steps to lean on a pillar, hands still hidden. She raised her face to Jensen, finding him staring at her.

«I think I'm quite safe now», she said in a joking tone.

She tilted her head in a quick denial movement, feeling for a moment suddenly too nervous by that silence.

«Adam, if there's anything else you need to tell me, it seems appropriate that you do it now.»

Jensen cleared his throat with a stunning verse, stiffening on his back.

He was learning at his own expense how much that _little girl_ had the innate gift of showing childish insecurity and then choosing to take matters into her own hands and act accordingly.

Selene already had a strong and independent personality, but over time she would become an incredibly strong, surprising woman. Even more stunning than he could ascertain with harassing precision.

He remained silent for a few more seconds, tilting his head in a nod. When he decided to speak, the young girl was watching him resolutely. «I am not mad at you.»

«Why should you be?», she immediately asked, moving away from the pillar and casting a glance at the nearby tunnel, regretting that the man continued to hide his eyes.

The ex-SWAT hesitated again, a quick grimace bent his lips at the idea of bringing back something that _troubled_ them both — it was useless to deny it.

«For what happened last night. For _what_ you asked me», he answered in a calm voice, probing her expression. «I am not angry or annoyed, so you don't need to feel uncomfortable for having asked me to sleep with you.»

He added those last words by turning his face elsewhere, in an absurd attempt to hide the slight blushing that pinched his nose, pretending to be attentive to the distant noise of the metro arriving on the rails.

In his heart, he knew he couldn't ignore how good it was to hear that request. He knew how long he had lingered on the memory of the dream he had had that morning. He knew how he had chosen to bear it, allowing himself a few minutes of pure necessity in his bathroom, under the stream of hot water in the shower, satisfied through those solitary moments that had given him a faint glimmer of normality since he had been augmented.

The orgasm reached had not been completely satisfying, it never was, but it was enough to stop thinking about that feeling of frustration and fear. But it wasn't enough to stop thinking about her.

Selene tried to formulate a meaningful sentence, opening her mouth to speak, closing it in a hinted sigh, then opening and closing it again, her hands still tight in the pockets of her jacket.

She let slip a nod of dissent, along with a couple of questions that had flashed through her mind during that same day.

«Are you... Are you homosexual, Adam? Or maybe you aren’t interested in sex at all? Because if so, I'm sorry to have upset you. I don't...»

Jensen slightly widened his gaze from beyond the shields, his eyebrows arched over them in a surprising motion. He denied with his head in a firm and simple movement, interrupting her, lifting a corner of his lips in a smile not exactly amused.

«No, Selene. I’m not homosexual», he replied in a slightly more serious tone than expected. «I like women. A lot. And I like to have sex», he quickly added, clearing his throat shortly afterward.

He let her understand that he was watching her with lively attention, as if he wanted to show her how sincere that last statement was without even touching her.

The thought of the dream of that morning still hovered in his mind, especially at that moment. And masturbating, even if it had soothed him for a short time, had been a simple palliative: if he had touched her, even if only to say goodbye, he would have felt more strongly the urge not to let her go. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go along with the voice of reason again.

The girl blushed imperceptibly, putting her head between her shoulders.

«Sorry», she couldn't help but say, trying to find something else to make up for that bizarre feeling of anxiety and fun.

The arrival of the train forced her to re-evaluate the words with which to respond, trying to regain possession of her colloquial faculties.

«This will be the last time we see each other before your departure, won't it?»

The man nodded with a nod, _presumably_ returning a little more relaxed in turn. «I think so, Selene.»

The doors of the wagons opened three feet away from them. The girl moved quickly towards them, hesitating only a moment before passing them, only to tighten with one hand the steel support to hold on to and turn around when the accesses closed.

She barely had time to catch sight of Adam in the same spot where she had left him, raise her other hand in a greeting to which he replied with the same gesture, and finally sensing the train setting out on its way, her heart in her throat and her expression absorbed in thoughts now distant.

Left them there, on that platform, forced them to stay away, along with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, well... Selene is naive and impulsive, and Adam instead thinks too much, other than being boringly protective. Perfect couple. ;)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene faces herself, guided by what she childishly perceives as a sudden and unmotivated goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extensive and detailed references to sex throughout the chapter, and the presence of a scene of physical and verbal harassment equally described.

Selene woke up in her bed with a vague feeling of déjà-vu. Alone again, again with the awareness that she had left something important unfinished and that she didn’t seem able to complete.

She got up with the extreme need to get out of the apartment quickly, deciding after a quick stop in the bathroom to dress in sportswear to spend a couple of hours performing physical activity in the university district, the vu-phone in a hidden pocket and the earphones that spread deafening music directly into her ears.

If the day before the morning had been cloudless, though considerably cold, the cloudy sky and humidity made the climate even colder. Not that she was affected in any way, running fast at a sustained speed for several blocks.

When she returned home around lunchtime, she went to the bathroom leaving the mobile and headphones on the table; she filled the bathtub to relax for a good half an hour, immersed in hot water up to her chin, only her knees decorated by the ink squiggles coming out of the foam.

Although her ears were forced to muffled and not very precise sounds, the young woman could hear the noises coming from outside, the soft voices of the neighbors in the courtyard, the rumble of the few cars that could pass in that area of the city center, the murmur of the heating activated before leaving, the hum of the fridge in the main room.

She could also _perceive_ , in the silence of her home, the annoying sensation of being distant with her mind.

After a long breath, she sank completely with her eyes closed into the water, able to hold her breath for several minutes if she didn't need to move.

_Sunday afternoon I leave for a mission with the TF29._

Selene moved her hands over her belly, tickling her skin just near the navel.

She didn't want to think about the way the conversation with Adam had ended: there had been something absolutely wrong in the answers she had left unspoken, in the words she hadn't uttered, in the expression she knew she had shown. She felt as if she had deliberately avoided seeing and observing important details, nuances of a reality that she didn't suppose to be forced to understand and accept. She preferred to overlook the many reasons that had led them to converge so close, so distant, so _frightened_.

She didn't need to make her situation more difficult, yet she was starting to believe she had done it without even realizing it, without even noticing how much she wanted to replace her fingertips, now slipped beyond her groin, with the carbon ones of Adam.

The pressure of her index finger on her clitoris gave her a vague feeling of warmth, but not enough to satisfy her, not enough to focus her attention on herself and her body, in an attempt to distract her from the image of Jensen standing beyond the subway doors, in a silent greeting whose ephemeral simplicity she could not share.

_You don't have to worry about me, Selene._

She didn't want to worry, she was aware that she had no right to do so. She wasn't afraid that something might happen to the ex-SWAT — or was she? — but it was the time she had to let go that made her considerably unsure; unsure of not knowing when he would return, unsure of having to wait too long before she could start fighting again, unsure of forgetting, as had happened with her parents, the tone of his low and sometimes hoarse voice.

The girl knew how easy it was to erase the sound of a laugh: it was the first detail that disappeared from memory, leaving only silence.

Her hands remained immobile between the top of her thighs for a few more moments before moving her fingers away to move them to the edge of the bathtub. She emerged from the water calmly, breathing quietly again as if she had never held her breath.

She placed the back of her neck on the ceramic behind her head, her eyes still closed and the image of Adam behind her eyelids: she wished she could have relied on other details, other thoughts, other certainties, because the feeling of wanting to replace the memory of the night before with the desire for a hasty pleasure procured by herself was not strong enough to drag her mind away.

She couldn't think of the man in the way she felt most needed at that moment, because there was nothing inside her that made that image possible. There was nothing he had left her to allow her to linger in a fantasy in which she wanted to find relief for a few minutes.

Over time she had learned to listen to her body, her libido, considering it absolutely natural in the context of her personal sphere. She found it simple and intimate to feel the urge to masturbate, but she couldn't help but interrupt _that moment_ if she tried to dwell on the _idea_ of another person — on the figure of another person. Really fantasizing about someone during that _action_ wasn't in her interest, she simply couldn't do it. She preferred to linger on the infinite material found on the web, developing an obvious predilection for the amateur genre, without paid actors, and without a specially constructed story. A simple desire for a couple totally unknown to her who dedicated themselves to good sex, recording themselves in the meantime.

The only and last time she had accompanied a natural — for her — self-erotism practice, fantasizing about someone she knew, was when she was eighteen, the first time she had had an orgasm by herself after the rape. And maybe, it was also that detail that made her label the idea of fantasizing about a person as something _forbidden_ : the predominant sensation had always been that of causing some form of _involuntary_ violence towards that momentary point of reference.

The first time she masturbated she thought about Damian. _Afterward_ , she remembered how she felt: sad, lonely, foolish, certain that she had offended or hypothetically forced her instructor. It was at that moment that she realized that what she felt for him deserved to change into a more mature awareness, less harmful to her and her teacher.

To be honest, it was also extremely easy to rationalize that sudden certainty. It had always been, after all, a destructive obstinacy, the childish thought that no one else could love her as he had always done and as Fisher continued to do.

Damian had allowed her to understand that the world held gentle beauties that would never cause her any kind of pain, but it was not with him that she had to rediscover them for good. That part of the teaching was exclusively up to her.

With a sigh, Selene opened the drain hole in the tub so that she could rinse and wash her hair carefully. Looking into the mirror above the sink, the towel wrapped around her body with a mechanical gesture, she realized that she needed to reinforce the purple color as soon as possible, but a part of herself had really started to consider changing the shade, as well as shortening the cut a bit.

During lunch, she received a phone call from her uncle to establish if it was possible to set up a live show at Crannóg with Řehoř. Selene answered him yes, that she would prepare a musical setlist with the keyboardist immediately after the call. After a couple of hours, it was Vaclav's turn to contact her, asking her to confirm the event — an event that had already been shared on the web through a simple newsletter. She answered positively to him too, assuring the boy the presence of songs more inspired by their favorite genre, even if both had mutually discovered to range from rock, to metal, to punk with a childlike spontaneity.

The need to vent that subtle patina of frustration had to be conveyed in the right direction, even if Selene didn’t totally entrust that unpleasant feeling of uncertainty to the childish desire to erase with the pleasure of a few minutes a bizarre sadness that had accompanied her for hours.

She didn't need to lie to herself to know how her mind reacted and worked in a similar situation. It wasn't Adam's refusal that upset her, but rather the way behind his words, behind his _alien_ look, behind his expression, there was a gigantic, cumbersome " _Yes, Selene, I would like that too. But we can't, we don't have to, we are not legitimized to feel this way._ "

A very large part of her, perhaps the most important part, deeply thanked the ex-SWAT for the strength shown at that moment, a strength that Selene hadn't had; for the courage not to give in to something highly destructive and wrong, that courage typical of those who didn't need to find answers in others to feel complete, courage that the girl was still trying to make her own; for the stability of a place where nothing could turn into an inaccurate jumble of two empty bodies, two shells of flesh and blood that had lost their guests, a stability that the young woman felt only when she could dive into a new and sudden battle, driven only by the need to think about her survival.

Although Adam's behavior had rekindled capricious flashes of pride in her, she knew very well how wise and indispensable the agent had been, how he had been present, kind and tender without the need to accept a behavior that would have made an already deeply uncertain situation more complicated: however sweet, those very moments couldn't and shouldn't be welcomed so lightly.

The fact that Selene was also aware of this made her wonder at what moment in her life she had let such maturity blossom. She, who didn't really believe herself capable of handling something so great on her own.

It was difficult to see beyond the simplicity of words and gestures but, that she could be cursed if she dared to deny it again, how grateful she was for the presence of herself in her life with her past, her torments, her demons, her madness, her sadness and her loneliness. And how much she hated herself for the way she felt relieved and ready to face the world again, aware that she could destroy and dominate it if she only wanted to. How much she despised herself for the ease with which she could look ahead, bleeding and hurt, but still always on her own legs.

She had understood and intuited several times that her strength of mind, that obstinacy, that natural inclination to fight, had made her an absolutely incredible personality in the eyes of Artair and Damian, but Selene couldn't really see herself in that _light_ , not with those connotations strictly linked to a "hero without stain and fear" symbolism.

She wasn't so special, she wasn't so strong, she wasn't so incredible, not in the sense that the only two men who really knew her meant.

The feeling of having somehow wronged an entire existence continued to poison her body; the guilt of being alive and the disarming joy of being able to choose how to deal with everything else were the feelings that tormented her the most: sometimes she wanted to give in to one, sometimes she wanted to give in to the other.

Sometimes she tortured herself with a simple question — _Why me?_ — and sometimes she chose to continue on the need to experience the lowest and deepest instincts of life, just to feel like everyone else, just to experience common mistakes, artificial paradises, that emotional destructiveness that took her breath away with its intensity, but that knew how to give her so much, so deeply. That's why she had actually asked Adam to have sex with her.

She knew she had no right to extinguish that duality, yet it had always been too easy to linger between her different thoughts, traveling metaphorically from one side of her soul to the other, only herself as a ship and small moments of life as her helmsmen.

Damian once told her that it was only her who chose, only her who decided, but with everything that had happened to her she couldn't help but, at times, let herself still be overwhelmed by external events, over which she believed she had no control.

Perhaps she was really beginning to trust the words of her mentor, listened just before they separated, two years ago. Maybe she was beginning to be tired of not being able to feel the same _faith_ that her father had passed on to her as a child, something that was part of his gifts, an extension of her mother's strength, two characteristics that had merged in her in the act of procreation. Perhaps she began to feel the urge to completely face that aberrant and petty part of herself, sure that she could overcome it. Certain of _having to_ win it.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Selene hadn't shown a single hint of surprise when by pure chance, while playing on the Crannóg stage with Řehoř Simek, she spotted Adam Jensen next to Vaclav. They were both sitting on the last stools closest to the door leading to the back of the pub, while Artair stood just beyond the counter a few steps away from them, busy keeping an eye on the work of his employees and the behavior of customers intent on ordering drinks.

Saturday nights often brought more people than expected, and if you combined an icy cold outside and a live performance inside, you could be sure that the pub would definitely earn a lot of money.

For the young woman, the reaction to that specific _presence_ only came at the end of the song she was singing, a movement of her head barely hinted at when she decided to free her shoulders and arms from a light duster that made her sense too heat — or perhaps it was that bizarre anxiety that had raised her body temperature?

Selene tied her purple hair in a high ponytail, the acoustic guitar held against her thanks to the strap, the clear aim of taking a few seconds to better observe the room.

She was _all too aware_ that she wore for the occasion one of the most winking little dresses that she could have in her wardrobe, a simple black velvet-like sheath dress with wide straps that opened frontally through a zipper, definitely short, _extremely short_ , and that pitilessly squeezed her soft breasts. To complete her outfit, she had opted for a pair of over the knee boots with a solid heel of a few inches and pantyhose not very opaque that let everyone guess the texture of the tattoos exposed on the portions of trained thighs.

It was the usual clothing she showed at the pub when she was supposed to perform, but she knew how particularly attractive her body was at that moment, along with the eyeliner and mascara that accentuated the blue of her eyes.

For a very brief moment, she felt almost annoyed by Adam's appearance, wondering if he had come there because he thought he couldn't find her at the pub or because he had hoped the opposite — and at that hypothesis, she sensed much more complex feelings, the certainty that in that case, he was at Crannóg to talk to her.

After a long breath and a rapid glance at the keyboardist, she took a quick look in front of the microphone, raising it slightly to play with more transport without sitting on the stool left available: the songs she had chosen for the evening were all quite _lively_ , in lyrics and melody.

When she finally came to her senses again, she forgot any negative emotion, freeing herself of that acrimony through music and through everything that represented for her that incredible passion.

She performed with renewed energy and decision, involving the audience that sometimes sang the words of those songs with her. She almost managed to forget the invisible lighthouse that focused all her attention on the agent, in that animosity that had emerged at the precise moment when she had understood that he would look at her — once again that stream of capricious pride that suggested her to show at her best, while finally, _finally_ , she let herself go to the marasmus inside her and to the fire that she no longer even tried to tame.

_Childish and silly. Why am I giving you the power to make me so childish and silly?_

_Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn_   
_This[hurricane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdJDPepGOAM)'s chasing us all underground_

She hadn't really foreseen how much the songs she had chosen for that evening would prove to be so therapeutic for her soul. They somehow gave her relief and at the same time they pushed that primal need to drive the rest of the world out of her mind.

_Do you really want? Do you really want me?  
Do you really want me dead or alive to live a lie?_

She could always feel the passion that came from that gift, the beauty she experienced every time she chose to convey her emotions through the words and notes of others, not because it was easier, but because they gave her much to think about and much to show herself with — the caged tiger who would regain its freedom at the first opportunity.

She was so close to that reckless bliss that she could go beyond the mechanisms that activated all her doubts and fears, and against which she fought alone without apparent difficulty, but from which she often believed she couldn't come out as the winner.

_Tell me, would you kill to save a life?  
Tell me, would you kill to prove you're right?_

It was there that she could hide in plain sight, under the amazed glances of unknown people who were exalted by her nature clearly destroyed and reborn, full of cuts and scars, full of scratches and bites, full of that typical vitality of those who weren't afraid to die, but symbolically afflicted by the terror of being forgotten.

It was the childish desire to leave a mark on others, at any cost, the same desire that had led her to ask Adam to have sex with her, the hidden awareness that he would set aside everything about her, in one case or another — so why did she worry about that?

She had forgotten her parents' voice so quickly, she didn't want her voice to disappear from the rest of the world in the same way.

_Do you really want? Do you really want me?  
Do you really want me dead or alive to torture for my sins?_

When the performance ended, it seemed to her that the heart in her chest was about to explode. Her shoulders lifted to follow her constant breathing, her skin seemed to burn under the lights of the pub, with a slight patina of sweat enveloping her, and the corners of her eyes just pinching from the slightly smudged eyeliner.

She lifted her face to the ceiling while customers showed all their approval, amid short applause and barely controlled screams, and finally lowered it with her eyes closed, her head tilted slightly over her shoulder in a nod just before getting rid of the guitar to put it back in the case resting next to the other instrument.

Řehoř was, in turn, reorganizing his own things, giving her a questioning look. The hairline of his short graying hair let a couple of drops of sweat slip on the lines of his cheeks, the adult face tired but definitely satisfied, the dark eyes still shining for the excitement of having performed admired by such a warm audience.

The keyboardist moved one step, the male voice deliberately softened. «Hey, little one, everything okay? You were pretty wild tonight.»

Selene gave him a quick look before closing the zipper of the case. She knew well how much she had let herself be _scrutinized_ by anyone during that performance, but she had felt a desperate need for it.

«Just a few thoughts in my mind...», she admitted with a faint smile.

The man raised his hand to rest it on her violet hair, lightly untangling it in a paternal gesture even though she was still holding it in her ponytail.

«Do you need to talk about it?»

The girl squeezed herself in the shoulders, responding with a nod of denial. «Actually, I would just like a hug, but how hard would it be then not to feed the rumors circulating about us?»

Řehoř let slip a short laugh, warm and amused, raising his arms to fulfill the request of the young girl. «Let them talk.»

He squeezed her calmly for a few moments, feeling the warmth and the light layer of sweat on the palms of his hands, barely perceiving the marks under the tattoos, but ignoring them whenever he happened to notice their presence by pure chance.

The young woman simply maintained a little distance for simple personal shrewdness, always doubtful of triggering a sort of insecurity in those who could perceive the scars even with a quick touch.

«Is my uncle watching us?», she asked, giggling after she had moved back.

She really felt a little more relaxed and willing to cope with whatever situation she was about to face in a few minutes.

The keyboardist shook his face in a cheerful nod, resuming his duties and moving again next to his musical instrument.

«Artair can happily kiss my ass, or choose to deal with Hélèn», ironized Řehoř without any hesitation.

Selene burst out laughing even more loudly, lifting her head as she accompanied the amused gesture and returning to the man with an expression that was now calm.

«It's something I hope to witness», replied the girl, taking the duster and holding it in her hands, the smile still on her lips.

«What? Your uncle kissing my ass, or my wife and him fighting?», Simek asked, the expression doubtful by the first view but equally intrigued by the other.

«Absolutely the second option», replied the hacker's niece with a confident voice, a slurred smile to betray the next words. «But let's go back to something more important: when will you and your wife decide to give me another girl? Or a boy?»

The man threw an empty plastic bottle against her side, causing her to laugh even louder as she put the guitar case on her shoulder, held the duster in one hand, and moved to get off the stage.

That exchange of jokes with Řehoř had put her in a good mood, giving her a sincerely relaxed expression when she moved to the side of the counter that interested her the most. She couldn't pretend anything, she couldn't ignore so openly the presence that had surprised and troubled her during the end of the performance.

She took one look at Adam, his augmented eyes perfectly covered by the shields as he lifted his face over her from the whisky glass. She stared calmly at him with one corner of her lips raised and then shook her head with a wider smile, finally moving on. She left the musical instrument and duster next to Artair, near the wall, careless of the fact that a sleeve of the garment could get dirty by barely touching the floor.

Koller waved slightly on the stool on which he was sitting, giving her an enthusiastic smile and sincere spontaneity in his tone of voice.

«Selene, you were incredible! I don't think I have ever heard you play and sing like that.»

BlueDevil took a close look at her, nodding a little later to confirm that comment and let her understand in the same way a legitimate curiosity for that musical choice.

«Not really in line with the style of the pub, but the customers appreciated it a lot.»

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders left uncovered. A small voice in her head reminded her that Jensen could see the scars beyond the black ink, although she wasn’t sure his artificial optics could see them from that short distance.

«I only did what amuses me», said the girl as she walked around the counter again to take her place on the stool beside the ex-SWAT. «And how long have you been here?», she asked him in a calm tone, sure that it wouldn't really make sense to ignore him in front of the others.

Vaclav didn't waste a moment answering in the agent's place, not at all intimidated by the presence of his _patient_ and the hidden glance he gave him.

«He arrived shortly after the end of the first song, so yes, he saw almost the whole concert.»

Jensen tilted his face slightly towards her, an eyebrow just raised beyond the dermal graft.

«Concerned about my silent opinion?», he asked her in an amused tone.

He seemed incredibly predisposed to poke or tease her with a surprisingly willing attitude. Or maybe it was the presence of Artair and Koller: it seemed so easy for her to perceive his need not to point out in any way how much confidence they had.

The young woman sticks her tongue out at him, leaning on the shelf with her bare arms, the sheath dress that followed the movement of the body and squeezed her neckline more. Something in a slight change in Jensen's face made her understand that for a moment he had bent his gaze protected by the shields on the evident line of the breast, immediately returning to Selene's face to conceal that nod.

«I will never give you this satisfaction», she replied, raising her chin in a haughty gesture. «And in any case, your opinion is absolutely irrelevant, since you seem to know very little about music.»

Adam took a sip from his glass, a small sneer to lift a corner of his mouth and a slight inclination of his head toward his shoulder, only to make her see that he had returned to stare at her.

«You'd be surprised.»

The young woman remained silent for a moment, swallowing barely by how those simple words seemed to take on a totally different meaning when pronounced with that specific tone of voice, a bit rough and a bit amused.

She nodded impetuously because she was totally incapable of formulating, _again_ , a meaningful sentence and decided to order a lemon soda from the nearest bartender to focus on something else. It was her uncle to fulfill her request, however, leaving shortly afterward to pay the service to Řehoř, on the other side of the bar.

The Crannóg would be open for at least another couple of hours, taking advantage of Saturday night to legally extend the closing time. Usually, after a performance, the staff would reactivate the music in wire, most of the time reflecting the style of the pub and the tastes of the bartenders, in a rather unusual alternation of genres that seemed to work well for the customers.

During other evenings Selene had always spent that time sitting at the bar sipping a few drinks, chatting with someone she could recognize as a regular in the pub, or chatting with her uncle or Řehoř, if he decided to stay with them, but sometimes the girl would just put her guitar on her shoulder, pick up her stuff and go home before closing time.

She was no longer so sure that Adam was there to talk to her, maybe the agent had simply thought that before he left, he had every right to enjoy a drink with some company. Drink that, from what she had understood, was always offered to him by BlueDevil: maybe it was just _opportunism_.

Usually, she was much more easygoing and relaxed, able to engage in conversation with anyone, but at that very moment she remained on the stool as if she were on coals, her legs crossed slightly to the side to follow the line of the counter, her knees turned away from the corner where Jensen was sitting; her back was straight, almost like her bare arms outstretched on the shelf, and her hands played distractedly and nervously with the half-full glass of the third lemonade with ice, a fluorescent green straw that stood out upwards and moved lazily according to the rotating movements.

She hadn't even spoken to the ex-SWAT anymore for a single comment or for a few quick jokes, simply because he hadn't participated in the dialogue between the young woman and Vaclav — they continued to discuss music and performance, mentioning other similar events around the city and possible concerts in Europe in more or less close places.

And yet Selene knew well that she had a good part of Adam's attention on her: she needed very little to understand when he looked at her fingers playing with the glass, her fingertips slipping on the smooth, condensation-soaked surface, or when he looked at the natural curves of her elbows decorated with black squiggles, or when he stopped to scrutinize, always from beyond the shields, the line of the nearest shoulder, only the shoulder strap of the dress to cover the area a little bit.

And the neckline. It was so damn absurd to discover Adam intent on slipping with his eyes, despite the shields, on the exposed roundness of the breast, squeezed by the dress and bra underneath it. To glimpse in him a slight swaying of his hips, as if he were suddenly _uncomfortable_ on the stool. Barely perceiving a slight nod of his face that let her notice the way he tended to bite his lower lip.

For her, being able to observe all those details represented an even greater discovery, something that, despite man's silence, no longer gave her that feeling of uneasiness.

Precisely because of that unexpected comfort, she started with Koller, not a few times, to hum a few songs spread through the speakers of Crannóg, with Jensen sitting between them. She couldn't help but see the hint of a smile on the lips of the ex-SWAT during those very moments, as if he wasn't at all annoyed to be amid of constant chatter and some chorus _shouted_ with little care and a lot of vehemence, in an amusing parody that the two young friends didn't bother to hide.

It was the very sight of that expression, even while the dermal grafts were active, that allowed her to take a few longer and quieter look at the agent, a silent exchange that she realized she had initially undertaken with some hesitation. Thanks to those slightly more attentive and interested glances, it was terribly easy for her to spot in Jensen a motion of attention, a singular ripple on his forehead, and watching his face stand up in her direction — or it was better to say that it was facing over her shoulders.

Selene knew even before she was really sure that there was something that had caught the eye of the ex-SWAT, something that made him stiffen on his back and move the glass of whisky he held in one hand, always resting it on the counter.

Someone hit her on the side with an inaccurate movement, not strong enough to risk moving her with the whole stool, but she found herself ready to carry her palms on the shelf in a secure grip, leaving the drink and turning to look at what had happened.

A young and good-looking boy, in his thirties, with short brown hair, dark eyes and a well-groomed beard that surrounded his chin and cheeks, smiled at her with a hand on his chest in a gesture of apology, while maintaining the same closeness just _conquered_.

«Forgive me, my friends practically pushed me to talk to you», the stranger immediately said in an affable tone, gesturing towards an imprecise point in the room, a few syllables a bit dragged out that gave Selene a fair certainty that the boy had already been drinking.

«My name is Evžen. We saw you performing and we wanted to pay you our sincere compliments. Well... My compliments, since I am alone for now.»

«Oh», began Selene pretending to be surprised, definitely used to those rather exuberant approaches. At the same time, she didn't fail to listen to a faint verse of disappointment presumably coming from Adam. «Thank you, you're kind.»

Evžen almost didn't give her time to finish the sentence, extending a hand to rest it on the exposed portion of her back, her purple hair still tied in the ponytail gave him access to that area of her body without much trouble.

«Are you alone?», he asked without even taking a single look at the two men standing next to her.

Selene was unable to say whether he ignored them deliberately or whether he hadn't really noticed the previous conversation she had been engaged in. Probably Evžen had been watching her behavior with the rest of the people all evening.

«Can I buy you a drink?», he continued without hesitation.

The young woman stiffened imperceptibly to the sensation of the foreign palm on her skin, moving her face slightly away from the smell of alcohol in the client's breath.

«It's not necessary, I actually drink for free», she admitted.

«Sure, I can imagine», began the other one with a guttural laugh.

The answer made her eyebrow arch visibly, but he didn't pay attention to her doubtful expression and continued without delay.

«What do you drink, then? Something strong?»

«A simple lemon soda», Selene pointed out, the intuition that gave her enough information to understand that Evžen would soon show a slightly more expansive attitude.

She took a quick glance at the two men on her left, both silent and attentive to the dialogue with the stranger: Vaclav seemed intrigued by this careless and direct approach, although not entirely convinced by the scene; Adam, on the other hand, his inscrutable expression and eyes covered by shields, remained impassively still, stiff on his stool.

« _Oooh_ , but why?», the customer resumed with a cheerful voice. «No vodka or tequila? Not even a little rum? Come on, then drink with me something different. Would you like it if we sit on one of the sofas?»

Artair's niece shook her head in a soft gesture, a circumstantial smile on her lips and her torso tilted forward to try to move away from the hand of the stranger who had remained on her back.

«No, thanks, I'm not drinking alcohol tonight.»

Evžen ignored the answer, moving the only other free palm on the girl's most raised knee, slipping in a decisive movement just beyond the edge of the black boot to rest his fingers directly on her thigh; the pantyhose didn't forbid him to feel the warmth of her skin and the edge of the dress not so far from his fingers all way too _harassing_.

«Come on, come on, don't be shy. We can go to the Red Queen, if you like. Maybe you'll feel more comfortable, there.»

Selene had excellent self-control in those circumstances: she knew very well when it was alcohol that made certain customers of the pub much more uninhibited, but she couldn't help but feel the urge to take her drink and pour it on the boy who had no problem in touching her so openly. Or maybe push him away rather eloquently, but she would have risked sending him directly to the stage on the other side of the room.

«Hey», she tried anyway to find a solution without incurring so much physical and _violent_ responses. «It's not nice that you put your hands on me», she said without further ado.

Her voice was loud enough to be heard even by one of the bartenders who worked for her uncle, who immediately turned to the scene to make sure everything was okay.

Evžen immediately turned his palms away to bring them back to his chest in the second false nod of apology, leaning towards the young woman with a fake mortified expression. Before she even heard his answer, the girl guessed in what tone the stranger would try to recover a small part of his _wounded pride_.

«Oh, I'm sorry, forgive me. My mistake, I must have let myself be fooled by the slutty dress you're wearing.»

The girl gave him a quick surprised look, not at all offended by the epithet, but absurdly willing to laugh in his face at that comment, seeing him show an obvious grimace of annoyance. What she hadn't foreseen was the noise of a stool behind her, Vaclav who let slip a rather loud "hey" addressed to the _asshole_.

She had thought it was the doctor who had snapped like a spring, but when she could see Adam standing next to her and caught between her and Evžen, she couldn't help but grab Jensen by the nearest arm, holding him — because there was something in his movements that gave her the feeling that the agent had had every intention of breaking the jaw of that idiot.

«Adam...», the young woman murmured slowly, amazed to find herself defended by him even in that context.

It didn't take long to notice four other guys approaching in a single movement, in a sort of camaraderie symbiosis, all well dressed and looking like they were going to end the evening with a fight. Yet they too had to perceive that tacit sense of danger that the ex-SWAT emanated, choosing to stay at a safe distance.

The agent felt Selene's hands on his arm, a paradoxically familiar force that held him back from advancing toward the other man and reminded him that she could manage perfectly well on her own — but he had failed to ignore the behavior of the stranger.

«Repeat what you said to her, or try to touch her again, and I'll get you out of here without teeth, together with your little friends», he intimated him in a very exhaustive tone.

Evžen was forced to tilt his head upward to look at Jensen, an initial grimace of disdain that lapped his face as he was about to answer nervously, ridiculously _swelling_ his chest and shoulders in a gesture that was intended to give him a more threatening look, in vain. However, when he was sure that the man in front of him was augmented, he froze for a long moment, his upper lip still curled in the desire to let slip those words that would lead to a single conclusion.

He moves one step back, then another, a dry puff just before reaching the group of friends and walking to the exit mumbling a resounding " _fucking clanks_ ".

Selene hadn't even turned around to follow strangers with her eyes, aware that she was still holding the arm of the man protected by the coat between the fingers of both hands. She found Jensen's gaze on herself, even if still covered by the shields. The ex-SWAT bent over to his side to observe her without moving away, letting her hold the robotic limb.

When they both suddenly realized that the upper part of the carbon end was pressed without any hesitation on her breast, the little black dress that left the wide neckline visible and the arm practically in the middle, they stared for a few more moments in silence.

They weren’t surprised, or intimidated, or frightened, but on the contrary, they seemed absolutely willing to welcome that incredibly intense closeness again.

However, it was the young woman who broke contact, watching Artair intent on approaching that area of the pub quickly after the bartender who had witnessed the scene had told him what had happened.

Jensen took the necessary steps to allow her to get up from the stool and let her move towards the back of the counter, quickly reaching the case of her guitar to take the duster, wearing it with certain haste.

She didn't want to listen to a possible lecture from her uncle and she didn't want to stay among all those noisy people.

«If you need the bathroom», she said to Vaclav and Adam with one hand already on the handle of the nearby door, «you better use the one on the back, because the one for customers will probably be closed soon.»

She didn't even take the time to listen to a possible response from them, crossing the doorway quite quickly and reaching the private toilet to use it calmly — the three lemon sodas that had definitely had an unpleasant effect on her bladder. She washed her hands immediately after adjusting her clothes, letting a sigh of tiredness escape as she placed her palms on the edge of the small washbasin and scrutinized her expression through the mirror in front of her, her purple hair gathered in her ponytail that left every side of her face perfectly visible.

It wasn't the first time that someone dared taking that attitude with her: it wasn't just that individuals like Evžen deserved not only a categorical rejection, but also a well-adjusted knee between their legs that would invalidate them from any kind of sexual activity for a while.

The sad awareness that such behavior was a direct preview of much worse violence was what made her really intolerant.

It wasn't just the sexist offenses, or the words of mockery, or the hands that touched without any consent to have suddenly thrown on her that hint of deep fatigue. It was about that familiar uncertainty that stood out in the mouth of her stomach and that could be linked to the long period in which the ghost of rape had risked making her totally incapable of trusting a man.

And it was about Adam, how he had intervened as soon as the situation had shown itself to be ethically untenable. In other similar circumstances, her uncle had also put himself on the front line to defend her, often banning those particularly annoying clients, but BlueDevil was her family, the only relative she relied on. Adam wasn't forced to react in that way, yet he hadn't hesitated a single moment to do so.

Selene barely sighed, passing her fingers on a slight smear of eyeliner under both eyes, and rinsing her palms again immediately afterward. Once in the hallway, she looked in the direction of the side from which she felt the chaos of the room coming from, holding her arms to her chest in a motion of impatience.

She didn't immediately return to the main space of the pub, but instead continued in the direction of the second exit, feeling the access behind her open, the noise coming from there suddenly intensified.

She ignored anyone who looked out of the door behind her and went outside, on the side street that housed a couple of parked cars, the cold air of the night that ran over her mercilessly because of her too light clothing. She freed her hair on her back for the feeling of warmth that she knew she would feel thanks to it, a naive _Linus security blanket_ that fell softly on her shoulders.

She waited just ten seconds before she heard the door next to her open up to the outside, a faint smile on her lips and her gaze low on the sidewalk.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar movement in black, Jensen's coat barely moving because of the light wind blowing around them. She heard the sound produced by the agent's zippo lighter, followed by a deep breath and the sight of a cloud of smoke spreading through the air.

Selene exhaled deeply, raising her head to look at the man, finding him intent on responding to her gaze with his shields off, that vague feeling of wonder and curiosity every time she could see his _alien_ irises, his most _natural_ expression.

«Thank you», she began. «Is everything all right, inside?»

Adam nodded calmly, taking a quick look around before returning to her. To scrutinize her as if he were trying to guess her real thoughts.

«Yes, your uncle wanted to know what happened, but the bartender explained it to him.» He took another puff of nicotine, hesitating for a moment. «He thanked me and told me that this is not the first time this has happened.»

The girl let slip a dry verse of anger, denying with her head, finding better support on the wall behind her and tightening her arms to her chest, closing the duster on her body more firmly.

«I guess he didn't just limit himself to that, but he commented on how inappropriate my clothing is. As if a nice dress would be enough to trigger such behavior.»

Jensen let out a giggle, barely nodding. «No, he didn't say anything like that but yes, I think he thought it, although I'm sure he does it simply because he wants to protect you.»

Selene puffed visibly, lifting one hand in a vague movement, intent on not giving weight to how many times Artair had been unhappy with her stylistic choice for the performances at the pub, even though she knew perfectly well why, and the agent had also understood it.

«And you think so too, don't you?»

Adam studied her for a long time, visibly denying it with his head.

«No», he answered quietly, the expression a little more serious.

«No?», she questioned him, a grimace of skepticism that bent her lips down, her blue eyes that let him see how not really convinced she was.

In a pure rush of slight resentment, she moved just one step forward to leave the wall and open the duster to show the clothing below, exposing to view the dress, pantyhose and over the knee boots.

«No, Selene», repeated the agent with a small smile to sweeten his features. «You are free to dress the way you want and no one has the right to tell you otherwise, or to treat you badly if you decide to wear a nice-looking dress. You can also leave your house in underwear, or naked, no one has the right to touch you or say something harassing because of your clothing.»

He took a calm look at her, aspirating another puff of nicotine and exhaling the smoke towards the rest of the street to his left, returning to her with pondered slowness, as if it were difficult to look at her so openly.

«And for the record, this dress looks really good on you.»

He let slip a brief contemplative pause, scrutinizing her face, but unable not to expose an imperceptible nod that contained a much more _detailed_ opinion. A slight movement of the eyes, rapid and discreet, but with which he hadn't hesitated to slip on her feminine forms.

«Very good, Selene.»

The young woman stared at him for a long moment with a decidedly incredulous gaze, a veil of flushing that blushed her cheeks to that decidedly surprising confession, pronounced with a gentle tone but equally rich in interest, the certainty that Adam really thought what he had just told her.

«Thank you», she answered in a slightly low voice, closing the duster on herself and leaning back against the wall. «And thanks for before. I really appreciate that you intervened.»

Jensen raised his eyebrows in a surprised nod. «I know you can handle yourself, Selene», he took a moment to look away, smoking again, paying quick attention to the cigarette almost halved, «but I couldn't stay on the sidelines.»

The girl didn't know immediately what to say, remaining to look at him with that obvious look of expectation, as if he had to go on, to add something else, because what she wanted to say had the connotations of a confused and inconclusive chatter.

In the end, she opted for the first thing she thought when she saw him from the stage of the pub. «I figured we wouldn't meet before you left.»

The man nodded, sucking in a few more puffs, suggesting that he wanted them to be the last ones.

«Yes, that was the idea.» He handed the cigarette to the young woman, but she refused it with a nod. «But I had the feeling that last night we hadn't finished our conversation.»

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders, rubbing her arms covered by the duster, the cold that made her all too aware of the need to suddenly want to be elsewhere, everywhere, but not there to face that slight agitation.

«Oh, really? You don't say... And exactly, who had to add something else?»

The agent looked at her for a few moments before resuming smoking, perfectly capturing the hint of detachment that permeated her voice, having an immediate response to the doubt that had crowded his thoughts throughout the day.

«You.» He paused, exhaling a cloud visible in the light of the street lamps. «I.»

The silence that followed made him hasty, drastically halving the time needed for his _vice_. He felt a strong impulse to slip his hands into the pockets of his coat.

«Would you rather I didn't tell you anything about the mission with the TF29?», he continued with a slightly stricter expression than expected.

Selene looked at him, surprised, turning slightly on her side to face him, moving away again from the wall behind her.

«What? No! This is your job, Adam. Why should I prefer to see you disappear overnight without knowing why?»

The man took another copious mouthful, staring at her shortly after exhaling. «Because you are worried.»

The girl shook her face in a firm nod, crossing her arms back to her chest and tightening the duster on her belly, a thrill barely visible even to the ex-SWAT.

«Not for the reason you believe.»

«Then for what?», he continued. «For the fact that you and your uncle will have to wait for me before you can resume your investigation?»

The girl nodded slightly, bowing her face.

«Yes», she admitted, rubbing her arms again with the palms of her hands, the need not to expose a total truth about what was really troubling her.

The ex-SWAT stared at her for a long moment, intimately amazed that he didn't need the C.A.S.I.E. mod to understand that she was not telling him the rest.

«And what else?», he asked again, about to finish the cigarette.

Selene shook her head, leaning against the wall with her back, her hair creating a minimum thickness between her body and the cold side of the building.

«It doesn't matter.»

Jensen watched her, sucking in the last two puffs quickly and throwing the cigarette butt on the ground to put it out under a shoe, his carbon hands readily tucked into the pockets of his coat, just as he had wanted to do.

«It seems to matter. For you», he added, letting slip a faint movement of the shoulders forward. An anticipation of how much he wanted to bridge the gap between them.

The girl barely denied, the face bent over the road at her feet, the high boots that partly concealed the tattoos little covered by light pantyhose.

«Even if it does, I don't understand all this interest», she answered, finally looking at him in turn, bending her head to one side. «What does it matter what goes through my head, to the idea that you go and do your work with your colleagues?»

Adam collected himself a moment, a small smile to ripple his lips, a stream of subtle exasperation in finding himself arguing with her about something like that, something that reminded him how exhausting and ironic it was to have to put so much _pressure_ on her to explain what the real problem was, even if he could admit he was already a bit aware of it: simply, he wanted to hear Selene say it, and this had connotations that, if he dwelled on it, risked troubling him very much.

«You keep saying it doesn't bother you, but it seems quite obvious the opposite.»

The young woman raised her hand in a nod of carelessness, turning her eyes elsewhere. «Because, _really_ , that's not the matter.»

She crossed her arms to her chest, a couple of shivers to shake her shoulders, the bland attempt to end the conversation and give the impression that she was absolutely ready to maintain composure and control.

Adam remained silent for a few more seconds while he watched her, intrigued, amused, intimately surprised that the Artair's niece was still maintaining the mask of pride that he had seen her wearing several times before. Impulsive and proud at times when she seemed to be terribly emotionally involved.

Jensen freed his chest from a long sigh as he unhooked the buckle of his coat. «You're shaking, here.»

Selene looked at him in amazement at first, and then moved away from the wall with a sudden step, extending a hand to stop him.

«I don't need it, thank you», the tone once again a bit grumpy but in a different way, as if that kindness was the worst thing that could happen to her.

The agent ignored the words of the girl, about to take off his garment without really thinking about it, a shoulder already exposed together with the dark glint of the cybernetic limb and the black sleeveless shirt.

The action provoked again a rather eloquent response in the BlueDevil's niece, who moved further away from the wall.

«Damn it, Adam. I don't want it, your _damn_ coat!», she blurted out, finally making him stop, his face discreetly amazed. «I can take my _damn_ jacket at any time, but if you're so worried about the idea that I'm cold, then let me go back there», she said, pointing with a quick gesture of her hand at the nearby door. «Or hug me and warm me up, if you want me to stay here instead.»

Selene blushed imperceptibly, tilting her face in an unsure gesture when she realized what she had just said. Not that she suspected that what she had just proposed could really happen, but the idea left her silent, almost frightened.

She squeezed her arms to her chest and walked quickly towards the door before she felt grasped just above the elbow, squeezed slightly by the man's carbon hand _to force her_ closer again than was permissible.

The ex-SWAT guided her to move with him, finding support on the wall at the side of the doorway to lean with his back, first widening one flap of the coat and then the other to carefully wrap the young woman's tiny body; the carbon arms lifted around her shoulders, squeezing a bit her purple hair slightly swollen by the cold and humidity.

She found herself with her fingers pressed feebly on the male chest, together with the left side of her face, the seahorse in contact with the shirt. The heat that poured into her made her tremble for a moment before closing her eyes and deeply inhaling the scent of the man, initially shyly moving her arms around the torso of Jensen and settling better without reticence.

She could easily recognize the smell of the cigarette mixed with whisky and something terribly relaxing, such as musk or the fragrance of rain. She recognized the steady, deep beating of the artificial heart, a rhythmic thud that gave her the gift of calming instantly, along with the consistency of his back muscles that she could barely taste under her fingertips despite his clothes.

Adam bent his face to press his mouth and nose into her purple hair, breathing in the slight hint of jasmine and cinnamon, and finally finding that sweet shade that was supposed to be the natural scent of the girl's skin. She was so small compared to him that he could hold her without any problem. Hugging her was perhaps the only desire he could give in to without feeling even more wrong, even more different, even more tormented.

Selene hesitated a moment before moving her head to raise herself slightly, careless of exposing her arms again to the cold to wrap them around the shoulders of the man, forcing him to bend down a little while she stood on her toes. She realized that she was pressing her breasts against the agent's body, but she didn't care at all to give the impression that she was sending a different message than what she really felt she wanted to communicate.

Jensen, on the other hand, didn't want to ignore the pressure exerted by the soft roundness of the girl, softly squeezed into a contact that was all too pleasant and that he had dreamed of a couple of nights earlier. He wrapped his arms around the girl's back, pressing his mechanical hands, open palm, to be able to sense again that _feeling_ , the warmth that she emanated and that he wanted to feel in the sensors. He plunged his face into the hollow between the shoulder and neck, still filling himself with her perfume and feeling her tremble from contact with his beard in such a sensitive spot.

_Fuck everything and everyone. I don't care if anyone sees me with her..._

It was so _right_ what they were experiencing at that moment, how could they even believe they could deliberately ignore the strong impulse to get closer to each other? How could they believe that something so intense and destructive could be hindered by a simple idea? The idea that for them this was precluded, impossible, miles and miles away from their nature emerged from the pain they had been forced to endure and fight.

May they both be damned, between them it was creating that typical need to massacre each other to rebuild themselves in a better form, able to survive all the evils of the world.

Selene trembled again a moment before leading her hands to the back of his neck, slowly climbing up the male nape to first tighten with uncertainty and then in a firmer grip the man's hair.

_Fuck_ , it was incredible to find out how much she had wanted to do it, and it was all too ecstatic to hear the agent let slip a guttural verse of appreciation for that sudden momentum.

Jensen hadn't felt female fingers between his hair for such a long time that he was shaken by an obvious shiver. He squeezed his arms tighter around the young woman's body, afraid of hurting her, but unable to stop. He pressed his lips directly against the exposed skin at the junction between her throat and the depression of her collarbone, a motionless kiss with which he could feel the impetuous hammering of the girl's jugular. An immobile kiss a few inches from where she had been injured.

_Shit_ , could he also give in to the desire to do everything else, there, against that wall? Could he give in to the desire to bite her, lick her, kiss her, undress her and push his cock inside her? Selene had wanted him two nights before, and he hadn't had a woman in his bed for so long that the simple idea of taking her at his place drove him _crazy_.

«Adam...» The young girl's voice was barely broken, restoring him for a very brief moment from the dragging sensation in which he risked drowning. «Adam...»

The man struggled to return to his height, but she still held her fingers on the back of his neck, giving him just enough room to let his head bend slightly forward, his carbon hands no longer an iron pressure under her shoulder blades, but a gentle and warm grip.

Selene found herself pressing her forehead against Jensen's lips, closing her eyes.

«I'm sorry», she murmured in an uncertain tone.

The ex-SWAT had to rely on all his will power to find the voice to speak with.

He was so damn close to losing control and lifting her face firmly to open her mouth with his tongue, devour her, know her taste, find out if she was as sweet as her perfume.

He decided to answer her while still in the same position, his words vibrating on the skin of her face. «For what?»

Selene swallowed, a slight nod to maintain the necessary concentration and not think about how much she wanted to shut up and _give in_. «You were right.»

A short pause made Jensen smile, the movement also perceived by her.

«I'm worried, maybe because you're going on a mission. I am worried about the time that will have to pass. I'm worried about forgetting what it means to finally be able to rely on someone while I'm in the _enemy camp_. I'm worried about the idea of finding myself facing a situation like Hradec Králové alone. To be alone. I'm afraid to be alone, Adam, like when... Like when...»

Jensen sighed deeply, closing his eyes in turn as he pressed his lips more firmly against the girl's forehead.

He didn't need to listen to any more words to know what Selene was referring to. He had sensed that fear in her even when she told him what had happened to her, the _hell_ she must have gone through when she was forced to be alone for hours and hours in that place with her parents' lifeless bodies.

It was a thought that devastated him, that made him suddenly boil with the venomous desire to carry out a massacre, hoping that in truth those _filthy worms_ that had _destroyed_ her were still alive, because it was him who wanted to tear them to pieces with his own hands.

Feeling her so close and knowing her so terrified brought him back on the verge of a visceral and agonizing desire.

_Twenty-two years old, Adam. She is twenty-two years old._

And he wanted to make love to her before leaving on a mission, to have all the more reason to come back and not feel alone in the same way. _Twenty-two years old_ , and he wanted to screw everything to hell to stay with her. _Inside_ of her.

«Don't take too long, Jensen», Selene added, swallowing as she took courage to stare at him.

Part of herself knew that he could change his mind and claim that kiss that had been denied two days earlier; she knew that the agent could ask her to spend the night together, but she felt overwhelmed, or disoriented, or _broken_ , by the idea that he would then stay away for who knows how many days.

She didn't want to find out how beautiful, intense, _painful_ it would be to have sex with him and then try to live with his absence. And yet, although she knew it would hurt her, _later_ , Selene wouldn't hesitate to indulge him. If Adam had offered to stay together that night, she would have said yes.

The ex-SWAT replied to the look, finding in the young woman's expression no longer that careless tenderness that had troubled him from the evening of the rave, which had risked making him say yes to the _desire_ of two nights earlier, but once again that request for the unconditional trust that the girl had chosen to place with such innocent necessity. Even evaluating the idea of abusing it in some way made him all too aware of the mechanism that Selene was probably trying to implement without even realizing it.

It wasn't unusual to notice in a victim of violence the bizarre need to try something diametrically opposed, a pleasant form to exorcise the demon of a trauma not completely overcome.

_Christ_ , how could he even believe that he would be legitimized to make love to her without leaving any trace of a negative and aberrant memory inside her? How could he believe he was enough to show her that there was something decidedly sweeter and more tender in the world? With what brazen arrogance did he think he could take on the right to claim through her the satisfaction of a selfish need that he had kept silent for too long? How could he hope that Selene was really prepared to cope with his augmented body?

No woman deserved to have anything to do with it, least of all the young girl, who had experienced on her skin the worst horror that a man could provoke.

The mistake was to allow her to get so close and allow himself to get so close. Perhaps if he had kept the usual manner he kept with everyone, he wouldn't have ended up tormenting himself with such thoughts, but it had been so simple and natural to let himself go with the girl, look for her, observe her, want her. For too long he had buried his humanity and his weaknesses, and now that he started to feel them again, he was afraid.

But when Selene lowered her arms to squeeze them again around his torso and pressed her face to the level of his chest, still feeling that slight tremor that had shaken her in the same way just before, Jensen knew it was worth it. It was worth it to return to be more human if it meant being able to feel her that way.

The girl emitted a quick sigh, rubbing her cheek against the fabric of his shirt. «Adam, talk to me.»

The ex-SWAT swallowed an instant, calmly caressing the young woman's back and bending his face into her hair. He didn't have the strength to answer her by voice, he simply shook his head in a nod of denial, a weak, unsure verse directly from the bottom of his throat.

«Then it's okay», continued Selene, taking a break to lean on him again with more transport, without worrying about anything else. «That's all right then.»


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene is "forced" to face the Dvalis, but helping Koller is suddenly all that matters to her. But even though she is focused on this new task, Adam Jensen's absence affects her with absurd precision.

Selene soon realized that spending her time working in Vaclav's bookstore was keeping her mind occupied. Physically, at least for her, the effort she had to put in was almost zero, especially thanks to that innate strength she possessed.

She worked from Monday to Saturday, and three days out of six instead of coming home around 4:30 in the afternoon, she would return to her place in the evening, around 10:30 p.m., simply needing a hot shower and some time to herself, sometimes watching a movie or reading a book.

Most of the time she would have lunch and dinner with Koller by ordering take-out food from the Chinese restaurant The Chicken Foot, but on several occasions, she knew she would be eating alone, since the young man would be still busy with some tasks related to his second job; in that case, she preferred to prepare her meals directly at home and then bring them to the store.

Sunday was the only day off she had, but already by the second week of work she had started inviting Vaclav to her house to watch a movie together right after dinner. The boy's company was always extremely pleasant and relaxing, something she was easy to get used to and in which it was just as easy to find the kind of company she never thought she needed.

Artair had visited her a couple of times at the Time Machine, but during the daytime hours he was mostly busy with some research: he had contacted Janus for assistance about the military facility in Russia and was trying to trace other information about the data extracted at the Versalife site in Hradec Králové, including everything that could be found on Dr. Darcy Veldrin.

It was Jensen who gave him the _green light_ on that track, probably sure to find everything ready to finally establish a plan of action on his return.

Selene, bent slightly on the desk on the first floor of the Time Machine, tilted her face slightly while she was pinning some texts to be searched for in stock on a notebook.

The right hand held the pen, while the left one was against the cheek, holding the head surrounded by a pair of tufts of hair escaped from the usual braid; she was dressed in dark jeans, boots and a burgundy-colored cotton turtleneck, comfortable and pleasant clothing for her personal taste.

After a quick sigh, she tapped the end of the ballpoint pen on the shelf, her distracted gaze just lost in the void, the scent of the books enveloping her and giving her a satisfying calm.

 _That_ evening she had stayed with Adam for a few more minutes before accepting the idea of having to return to Crannóg. The man had given her a look full of all the words he couldn’t pronounce, caressing her with the back of two robotic fingers on the tattoo of the seahorse before pulling away from her, before he made her take the necessary steps back so that he, in turn, could move from the wall to the side of the second exit of the pub.

The only thing he had said to her in the corridor leading back to the main hall of the bar was a request, the eyes still uncovered by the shields that allowed her to memorize his kind expression with precise perfection.

«Please, Selene, stay out of trouble.»

And she answered him with a faint smile, her natural color eyebrows arched just in a hint of bizarre sadness.

«And you come back in one piece, please.»

The agent had left not long afterward, waving goodbye to Koller with a nod and raising a hand to do the same with Artair, who had returned to the other side of the bar counter.

Vaclav may not have been fully aware of what was going through the girl's mind, but he had the incredible ability to give her the gift of his company and talk to her as if he knew exactly what to say. Probably not even her uncle had understood why the niece was so silent; or perhaps, he was trying not to understand it, or better still, to ignore it.

BlueDevil must have guessed something, the young girl was sure of it, but she knew enough about Artair to know how much the relative was inclined to let himself be taken by doubts rather than trying to make sense of what seemed so obvious.

From a certain point of view, Selene found that characteristic of her uncle almost childish, a direct consequence of the countless responsibilities that had fallen on him several years earlier. Not that man was used to avoid duties or commitments, but finding himself suddenly caught up in a complex situation like the one they had both been experiencing for some time, had probably left him often in need of more energy, more leisure, more freedom.

Also, for that reason, Selene had chosen to live alone, although more and more often she had begun to sense the loneliness and thoughts in her mind. She felt remarkably lucky to have met Koller at such a time, with all that this new friendship was bringing.

With a small smile on her lips, she rose from her stooped position on the desk with the register and pen in her hands, moving calmly between the shelves to reach the storage room at the back. She was almost about to walk through the steel door when she heard several voices from the entrance of the bookstore, masculine tones that were undoubtedly speaking Czech.

She went back thinking that she was finding customers, but when she had a chance to look at the four men, her intuition immediately suggested she had to change of heart: the strangers were dressed in comfortable and heavy clothes, leather jackets surely of certain workmanship and a rather obvious _crease_ under the arms. One of them had his face totally tattooed to depict the likeness of a skull.

The young woman left on a shelf the objects she was holding in her hands, approaching calmly.

«Good morning, is there anything I can do for you?», she asked in her language, quite sure that they could easily understand her.

All four of them turned to look at her, squaring her from head to toe and giving her smiles in response that were decidedly unpromising.

«And who are you, little doll?», one of them said, while his companions snickered, disregarding the fact that they were unkind with their attitude.

Selene maintained a neutral expression, lifting the face slightly. «I am the new girl who works here. And who are you?»

The man who had spoken exchanged a couple of glances with the others, taking steps to get closer. «Oh, we are friends of Koller. Is your boss around?»

The young woman crossed her arms to her chest, facing without any problem the stranger who was moving towards her. «Not today, I'm sorry.»

«Oh, what a pity», continued the first one, staring at her with a sly smile.

«Or maybe not», said one of the three left behind, starting to move to the rest of the room, near the stairs leading to the upper floor. «This place is wasted as a library.»

The girl raised an eyebrow, slightly nervous. «I beg your pardon?»

The four men stared at her with surprised expressions, bursting out laughing shortly afterward because of her blatantly contemptuous attitude of the danger that those strangers thought they were inciting.

Vaclav hadn't told her to wait for a visit from someone who seemed decidedly interested in asking for something other than novels. The girl had a vague suspicion about who those people were, but although she knew she had to keep a certain calm, those men were unnerving her with their mere presence.

«Hey, hey, take it easy, little doll. We aren't here to make trouble», said the nearest one.

The other three continued to move slowly towards the rest of the environment, but she could still keep an eye on them without moving in turn.

«Ah, really?», Selene took a serious look at him, facing him although they were now only about seven inches apart.

The man looked at her with amused interest, tilting his face to one side to slide his eyes over her body. «Cute, your tattoos. How many others do you have?»

The young woman didn't answer, looking at a second individual, the one with the tattooed face, who approached them with a heavy step, giggling in turn as he passed them and moved behind her to check that part of the store too. The young woman followed him with her gaze, turning just to perform the action.

«Hey, I asked you a question», pointed out the first one by raising a hand in front of her face to snap two fingers annoyingly.

That gesture was almost enough to make her trigger, the desire to grab those phalanges and bend them in an unnatural direction for the entire bone structure of the hand, but she managed to remain calm, still giving the stranger a grim look.

«You must leave.»

All four broke out laughing again, but it was always the one closest to answering. «Hey, is this how you treat your boss's friends?»

«Or maybe he's your boyfriend...», suddenly suggested the other one who had moved behind her, positioning himself just twenty inches from her body with the clear intention of intimidating her and making her feel trapped.

Selene relaxed her arms along her hips, ready to react in case either of them even tried to touch her.

«I doubt very much that you are friends with Koller, but as I have already told you, he's not here. And since you aren't certainly my friends, your presence is only a disturbance to me and my work. You must leave. You must leave now.»

«What a temper, sweetie. Why don't you just relax a little bit?», the man in front of her said.

She perceived the stranger behind her to bend down a little, a silent movement that sharpened all her senses and gave her a primordial impulse of anger.

«Or we make you relax, little doll...»

She felt just a couple of fingers against her shoulder and had carte blanche on everything: she turned quickly and took the arm of the _idiot_ who had touched her, twisting it downwards and making a fast grab to knock him out by making him perform a messy somersault.

The other man, paralyzed by so much speed, found himself overwhelmed by his companion's body, tumbling on the ground in the same way. The other two strangers stood motionless for a moment before they were ready to pull their guns out of their axillary holsters, but Selene, too fast for their eyes, practically materialized next to them, hitting one in the face with a powerful fist and kicking the other in the abdomen.

All four of them were still conscious, of course, and complained painfully ridiculously.

The young woman bent down to pick up the two guns that had fallen on the floor, dismantling first one and then the other with a disarming speed and with the familiarity acquired over the years thanks to Damian, leaving the various pieces on the floor. She returned to the other two men to retrieve their weapons still in their holsters, performing the same action on them and letting them fall on the floor with the same promptness.

With one foot covered by the boot, she kicked slightly on the shoulder the henchman who had spoken more than the others; once attracted his attention, she pressed the shoe at the junction between the arm and the torso, applying the right force to make him feel a sting of pain decidedly intense.

She would have needed so little to disarticulate him, the sordid anticipation of already being able to foretaste the snap of the bone if that man had dared to _challenge_ her again.

«Now, you will take your things, every piece of your toys, and go back to where you came from», she said in a clear tone, so that others can hear her too. «And if you set foot in here again, it won't be your weapons that will be torn apart.»

She stood a few feet away, keeping an eye on them while they were struggling to get up, preparing to retrieve most of the guns disassembled; they simply forgot a couple of ammunition rolled too far to think of taking further time to collect them.

They gave her uncertain and frightened glances, but she was equally aware to recognize flashes of anger and frustration in them.

«Who the fuck are you?», blurted one of the four, now near the door.

«The little girl who kicked your ass. You can also tell your boss», replied Selene, crossing her arms at her chest.

She approached their position and then stopped only at the side of the two-leaf door, seeing in the four of them a hint of anxiety that made them leave the street with greater haste.

Once alone, the young woman took a moment to ponder, knowing full well that she had to notify Vaclav immediately.

She decided to put up for a moment the closing sign at the entrance of the bookshop, retrieve the four single ammunition scattered here and there a few feet from the stairs, and finally made her way to the laboratory of the doctor, certain that there no one untrustworthy would come with not very peaceful intentions.

When she took the vu-phone out of her pocket, she prepared to receive two possible attitudes in response. She brought the device to her ear, hearing Koller's voice shortly afterward.

« _Hey, Selene. Is there a problem?_ », asked the boy.

The young woman hesitated for a moment. «It depends. Were you expecting visitors to the store today?»

Vaclav seemed to ponder calmly, a doubtful verse perfectly audible. « _Um, no. The patients I had to see didn't need anything serious to do in my laboratory._ »

The girl nodded, carrying her other hand to her forehead, on top of her nose, in a purely contemplative gesture. «And in fact, I speak of special visits to the bookstore.»

« _No, not that I remem..._ », began to say Koller, stopping for a moment and then let slip a couple of expletives. « _Ah, shit! Fuck! I'm coming right away!_ »

The young woman barely sighed, amused by that sequence of swear words spoken so quickly. «Take your time, I sent them away.»

Vaclav remained silent for a ridiculously long time, giving her the sensation that the call had terminated on its own. « _You_ what _...?! Oh God, are you all right?! Oh, damn!_ »

She didn't even have time to answer to reassure and comfort him: Koller ended the call instantly and she stayed with her vu-phone in her hand for a few seconds before bursting out laughing to herself.

She returned to the bookstore and resumed her work from where she had left off, guessing the arrival of the doctor because of the noise he made when he opened the door.

«Selene? Selene, where are you?»

The girl looked out the back door, reaching the main room while Vaclav was preparing to climb the stairs to the upper floor, probably believing her to be at that level of the store.

«I'm here.»

The young man turned on the steps, descending quickly and advancing towards her with his hands raised, immediately placed on the girl's shoulders as soon as he stood near her.

«Are you okay? What happened?»

Telling Koller what happened was easy and considerably more fun than expected, but when they both realized that the situation could get worse, they sat for a few moments at the desk where the girl was working several hours earlier.

«Why didn't you tell me that you pay protection money to the Dvalis?», Selene made, the tone sincerely apprehensive.

The boy shook his head, tightening himself in the shoulders. «Because, theoretically, you had to stay out of it, but I'm really with my head in the clouds», he admitted with a tone of apology, all too sorry that the young woman was involved in that situation. «After the events of September... You know, the attack at Růžička station and the one foiled in London, their previous leader, Radich Nikoladze, disappeared into thin air, probably escaped, but it was Otar Botkoveli who took his place here in Prague, and I'm not on good terms with that man. I would say that I never was.» He let himself go to a deep sigh, throwing a look at her. «Jensen helped me to solve problems with them, right at that time.»

Selene bent her face, a corner of her lips lifted as she listened to those words; at the same time, however, hearing the agent's name gave her a sordid feeling of emptiness in her stomach, as if she had just received a weak punch to the abdomen.

«Our man with a heart of gold...», she commented in a slightly lower tone.

It had already been three weeks, twenty-four days to be precise, since Adam had left for the mission with the TF29, and still hadn't returned. And, of course, they had no news about him, well aware that this was definitely a routine of his work with Interpol.

The young woman collected herself shortly afterward, moving away from the desk.

«This time I will solve the problem. Definitively.» She paused, looking at the boy's surprised expression. «I have someone who owes me a favor.»

Vaclav raised his hands in a remarkably uncertain nod, in an attempt to put a lawful caution in what she wanted to do. «Someone? Who is it?»

BlueDevil's niece let slip a smile, even though she wasn't really sure that that expression was the most appropriate to show, not with the _plan of action_ that was going on in her mind.

«Trust me, it's someone you don't want to know.»

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Vaclav thought it wise to follow the suggestion of his _employee_ : temporarily close the bookstore for half a day, but still stay in the underground laboratory and contact Artair in case any of the Dvalis showed up again.

Selene knew that involving her uncle could make the situation a little more manageable, but she preferred to avoid it as long as she could; perhaps she would have made him participate in the matter anyway after receiving certain answers from the person she counted on seeing at the time.

The train ride to Most was quiet and fast, in the Czech countryside it was possible to see snowy mountains and hills in the distance, and the more she went up north the more the snow extended into the flatter areas.

From the central station of the town, she took a cab to Helga Hartmann's residence, presenting herself at the gate of the private garden with a sly smile on her face and a relaxed look as the guard stared at her with an attentive expression.

«I am here to see Frau Hartmann», she said, the tone relaxed.

The henchman had to be someone who hadn't been there during the evening visit she had made with her uncle and Adam exactly one month before. The man looked at her from head to toe, his eyes barely doubtful.

«Are you one of her girls? Isn't it a little early for... _That service_?»

The young woman was almost on the verge of let slip a giggle, trying instead to seize the opportunity. «I like to devote a lot of time to my client, if you know what I mean.»

The stranger seemed decidedly interested in the idea that had probably flashed in his mind, a predictable sneer and the move to the side of the entrance to make her pass.

«Well, maybe when you finish, I'll take you out for a drink and you can devote some time to me too.»

Selene simply smiled back at him, quickly approaching the actual entrance of the villa, two guards stopped her to give a questioning look at their _colleague_ at the gate.

«She is one of Mrs. Hartmann's girls. Let her pass», he answered from a distance, raising his hand in a gesture and inviting her to continue.

One of the other two men nodded, unconvinced, but beckoned her to follow him, guiding her up the stairs to the upper floor.

She walked with a calm step, looking at a couple of other guards along the corridor, sure that some of them were there during _that evening_ 's meeting — and they stared at her with slight bewilderment and obvious concern.

She probably had a good dose of luck to arrive without problems at the door in front of which the man stopped, signaling that she could proceed after knocking. The female voice from inside told her to come in and she executed the request, closing the door behind her.

Helga's bedroom was remarkably large, with a double bed with a modern canopy structure and beautifully arranged furniture, certainly thanks to the paid experience of some interior decorator.

Hartmann stood by the window, her slender body dressed in a chocolate-colored suit, like her eyes, and her blond hair styled in an elegant bun, a thin cigarette held between her manicured fingers by a mahogany mouthpiece.

Selene scrutinized her for a moment, finding her lazily sliding on a vu-phone with most of her face facing the landscape outside.

«You should select your men better», she said in an amused tone, her hands tucked into the pockets of the fake leather jacket.

The woman stiffened, turning with a shocked expression, a veil of worry to immediately weigh down the few wrinkles on her face. «What...? What are _you_ doing here?»

«Well ... They let me in...», answered the girl with an expression falsely surprised by that lack of courtesy, raising a hand to point her thumb behind her. «Relax», she added, finally bringing both arms up as a sign of peace. «I am here to collect the favor you owe me.»

She moved a couple of steps towards the blonde, the movements slow and precise to try to maintain a calm attitude and not to scare the other further.

It was at that moment that some of the guards she had seen on the path to that room broke in, guns blazing and snarled expressions. The young girl stopped, still with her hands raised, taking a serious look at the woman.

«Put your dogs back to their kennels before any of them get hurt», she murmured, nodding her head to the presence behind her.

Hartmann remained motionless for a moment, still considerably shocked by the presence of Selene in her bedroom. With a gesture, she ordered her men to lower their rifles, but she didn't add anything else, implying the request to let them stay there, probably to feel a little safer.

_Poor fool._

«I should have you killed for entering my house like this», Helga said in a forcibly firm tone.

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders, lowering her arms along her hips.

«Actually, I repeat, they let me in», she piled on with a sly smile, raising her hand to indicate the henchmen. «But as I have already told you, I am here for the favor you owe me.»

The other woman hesitated again, putting out her cigarette in the nearby ashtray and finally coming a couple of steps closer, her dark gaze trying to take on a light of command and control.

«I didn't expect you to ask for it so soon.»

The girl still showed a relaxed, almost mocking expression to indicate how comfortable she felt and how she didn't fear retaliation of any kind. In truth, she was well aware that she had to pay attention to any movement of the woman and any change behind her, but she was equally aware that she had to be quick and concise.

«What can I say? I like to give the impression that I'm not a person who forgets certain things.»

The other one let slip a short nervous giggle, moving a little more and finally stopping just ten feet away from the young girl. «I'm listening.»

Selene took a long look at her, denying shortly afterward and dedicating a quick movement of the head to the men behind her.

«It's a private request, I don't want your henchmen in the way», she pointed out, observing her carefully. «And if I wanted to kill you or hurt you, I would have had plenty of time to do it earlier.» Another pause anticipated the little sneered that raised the corner of her mouth. «You know what I am capable of, so you also know that I am telling the truth.»

Helga exhaled deeply, yet another action that revealed considerable uncertainty and a staggering need to regain control of the situation. She swallowed the bitterness created in her mouth, a direct consequence of how much the pleasure of nicotine had been ruined by the presence of the young woman.

In the end, she nodded weakly to her men, a slight gesture of her hand to command them to leave the room. When she and the girl were alone again, the dry sound of the door closed hovering for a few seconds in the room, the blonde squeezed her arms to her chest.

«There, happy now? Tell me what you want.»

Selene scrutinized her again, waiting to be sure that she didn't perceive any of the men beyond the doorway intent on eavesdropping.

«You have to convince the boss of the Dvalis in Prague to stop asking a merchant to pay useless protection money.»

The woman first answered with an uncertain grimace, shaking her head, confused: she had expected a different kind of request, something to do with the same _questions_ asked two years earlier by Damian Fisher and, much more recently, by Artair McTavish.

«Be more precise. Who are you talking about? Because I know that in recent months there have been changes within the Dvali family.»

«Otar Botkoveli», added the girl with a single-string tone.

Hartmann evaluated for a few seconds the whole of what she had learned from the little that she was receiving at that moment. The fact that the young woman was alone and willing to claim such a favor gave her something to think about. She looked at her for a moment, not entirely sure that what she was about to say could provoke a dangerous reaction in the girl.

«Your uncle doesn't know you're here, does he? And since this is a rather unusual request, I have the sensation that there are very personal reasons behind it that particularly concern you.»

Selene gave her a small smile, clutching her shoulders carelessly. She knew what the woman was trying to do: to act or respond with a defensive attitude would give her a _power_ she didn't want to give.

«It's a store where I work, to try to earn an honest living», the obvious contempt for the criminal activities of the blonde very little veiled, «and I sincerely don't like that my boss is forced to cut my pay in half because a bunch of scumbags can't live without causing trouble to honest citizens», she continued, adding a lie to imply that it was just a matter of money.

Helga raised her head slightly, crossing her arms to her chest. «I know a trusted person within the Dvali family, Máša Kadlek. She plays an important role in the organization and runs a club in Prague's Red Light District. I can talk to her, so that she intercedes with Otar.»

Selene observed her with attentive eyes, another small smile rippling her lips. «Is that all? Try not to fool me, Hartmann, because I won't hesitate a moment to keep the promise I made to you a month ago.»

The blonde seemed to tremble imperceptibly, the line of her lips tightened in a bloodless grimace that made her lose any hint of retaliation she thought she had regained. «I can call her even now.»

The girl simply gestured to her with her hand, tilting her face to the side as she moved towards the bed, taking sit on the mattress on the underside, between the rods of the canopy structure, sitting crossing her legs but bringing back her torso, leaning her palms just beyond the buttocks wrapped in jeans.

The other woman retrieved her vu-phone from the coffee table next to the window, walking nervously, not entirely convinced of exposing her back to her unwelcome _guest_.

«Mrs. Kadlek, I'm Helga Hartmann. I have a request to introduce you.»

She paused for a few seconds, her brown eyes probing the expression of the young girl, turning on her side.

«A favor that I would have the pleasure of asking you to keep our relationship stable. You must convince Mr. Botkoveli to... To curb his _interest_ in a store there in Prague, it's called...»

Selene understood from the look received that she had to provide that information. «Time Machine, it's a bookstore in Překážka district.»

The woman repeated what she had just heard, continuing the phone call as she shook her head and looked away.

«I can relate, but this is a very important request for me. It's a vital matter, and I am sure that Mr. Botkoveli won't have any really disabling problems caused by this single... By the end of this interest.»

The girl listened to her and saw her agree for a few more moments, before hearing her say a polite and cordial greeting; she watched with ill-concealed amusement Helga's serious expression when she ended the call and held her vu-phone tightly between her fingers, her arms crossed again on her chest.

«Done», said Hartmann, the face just darkened. «Introduce yourself to Mrs. Kadlek at the Red Queen tonight, at the opening of the pub, and tell her I sent you. She will have you escorted by one of her men directly from Otar, and then she will contact him while you are there, so you can hear yourself what they will say.»

Selene got up from the bed, sighing with a deliberate and carefree attitude, approaching the blonde with a sneer, but stopping as soon as she saw her stiffening. The girl stared at her for a moment with surprised, fictitiously naive eyes.

«I hope I don't have to see you again, Helga», she said with a smile. «And you hope so too, because if the choice I will listen to in Prague isn't satisfactory, I will come looking for you.»

Hartmann seemed to swallow, her body stretched back slightly in a clear sign of insecurity.

«I... I am sure that Otar will accept the request of Mrs. Kadlek», she said with a little lower voice, the brown eyes full of evident bewilderment. «And now, please, get off my property.»

Selene looked at her again for a moment, her hands readily tucked into her jacket pockets and her back straight and proud as she prepared to leave the room. She opened the door and moved a few steps into the corridor, immediately noticing some guards standing along the path to the stairs with a careful look, but without ever crossing her step.

When she was outside again, in the private garden, the henchman who had stopped her at the gate looked at her with a puzzled expression, surely surprised to see her leave so early.

«Already done?», he asked, the tone doubtful.

The young woman squeezed herself in the shoulders, smiling.

«What can I say? Not everyone can handle me for long. Short, but intense», she added, letting an amused wink slip by.

She passed through the metal entrance and heard someone call back with a tone of reproach the man to whom she had just answered, aware that she had certainly caused him a bad day at _work_.

Since she knew she had to wait until evening to continue with her improvised task, she reached the Most Central Station by feet, a long walk of almost fifty minutes with her mind turned to everything she had to do. She bought her return ticket at the telematic distributor and contacted Vaclav to inform him about the events, while at the same time asking for news about the situation in Prague.

The idea of having to go to the Red Light District made her subtly enthusiastic, even though she knew the reputation of the Red Queen and didn't appreciate the presence of such a prostitution business. Perhaps, she would have taken advantage of it to set foot back in the Irish Stool to drink an Irish export beer, feeling herself much closer, personally, to that environment that reminded her of Scotland.

Once on the train, she put earphones in her ears, took a seat next to a window, and let the music completely lighten her mood, along with the view of the Czech countryside whizzing past her at great speed.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Once returned to Prague, Selene had imagined Artair's reaction when she showed up at his house to tell him what was happening and what she had gotten involved in. She needed a much safer _assurance_ than Helga Hartmann's words; beyond that, she absolutely didn't trust Dvalis and their leaders.

BlueDevil was definitely furious at her, probably he would have been for several days, if not even weeks, and he had every good reason to be, but his niece knew she had to turn to him for remote assistance.

The relative had to give in to her request, especially to make sure she didn't end up dead: he provided her with an earpiece to keep in constant contact with him and an electronic device that would be activated remotely once the presence of a computer in a range of sixty-five feet from the young woman's body was recorded.

The idea of the young woman was purely precautionary, but with those people, she knew she could leave nothing to chance.

When it was time to go to the Red Light District, McTavish had been on the verge of going with her, but the man was perfectly aware that he had to keep himself lucid enough to do his job through the IT station in the hidden room in his apartment.

The Red Queen was located on the other side of the entrance the girl surpassed, passing in front of fascinated tourists and scantily-clad prostitutes, despite the now winter temperature made the clothes worn a real pain for them.

She passed the Temp-Tacle construction where it was possible to observe an octopus tentacle rising upwards and caressing the windows of four screens set on images of female figures. She walked at a fast pace, taking a quick glance at the Irish Stool, really eager to end the evening with a beer in her hand and sure that she had survived even that situation — the loud music that reached her ears even from that distance enticed her more.

When she passed the entrance of the Red Queen, the first thing that caught her attention was the red light of the big bulb attached to the ceiling with the inner wire twisted to form a heart. The pub's sound system was playing [continuous low music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdcKwATSYh4) in the room, probably well used when there were supposed to be more customers. She moved into the short space in the antechamber to see in front of her the bar counter on the right and the stage with two lap-dance poles in the central area, watching the access to the stairs beyond the structure, in the far-left corner.

She was almost moving in that direction when a girl rose from behind the bar. She was pretty, with short brown hair and dressed in clothes that left little to the imagination, but showed a friendly and relaxed smile.

«Hey, honey. Are you lost?»

Selene hesitated a moment before reaching her, responding in turn with a relaxed expression. «I would say it would be a rather picturesque place to end up if you get lost.»

«You may well say so», the other one supported her, scrutinizing her for a moment. «We just opened for the evening, but are you sure you're old enough to be here, honey? You look too young. Can I see some ID?»

«Sure», Selene did, pulling out the card and handing it to her.

Once seen and returned it, the bartender gave her an even more condescending smile. «You are very young indeed, but you are welcome. What can I get you to drink?»

«At the moment nothing, but thank you. Actually, I should talk to Mrs. Kadlek», replied the girl, hoping not to appear too direct and hasty.

The other stared at her for a few more moments, before giving her a decidedly radiant expression. « _Ohooo_ , are you here to apply for some job? Little girls like you make a lot of money in here.»

Selene didn't know exactly how to feel after hearing those words. She was dressed in boots, jeans, turtleneck, sweatshirt and jacket, without a thread of makeup and with her hair tied in a rather tight braid: how the hell could she pass for a woman willing to sell her body?

Probably the tattoo on her face and those visible on her hands made her a target for a certain type of clientele, giving her a widespread feeling of exasperation. And also, a subtle hint of anger, at the idea that her appearance could be easily mistaken for that of a minor: places like the Red Queen were a _problem_ , but even more so were those _filthy maggots_ who tried to fuck little girls and female children.

_And children. Sex slaves are also children and young boys..._

«I'm here on other business», she said, suddenly aware that her uncle was probably listening to part of the conversation. She moved one hand to point out the way up the stairs. «So, Mrs. Kadlek is here?»

«Yes, on the upper floor, in the management office», the bartender informed her, smiling quietly. «Door immediately to the left as soon as you go to the second floor. There may be armed guards, there, but you can stay relaxed.»

«Sure, and thanks», replied Selene with a quick nod of the head.

The young woman moved past the pole-dance stage and began to climb the steps accompanied by a LED light on the floor, noting the presence of some sofas and tables on the landing; she reached the top of the stairs and was immediately flanked by an armed man, dressed in comfortable clothes and several tattoos on the exposed portion of the arms.

«Mrs. Kadlek?», she asked while maintaining a calm expression.

«Who is looking for her?», the other interrogated her.

«Helga Hartmann sent me.»

The henchman frowned for an instant, nodding immediately afterward and pointing to the door on his right, the "manager office" plaque made the location of the room clear.

Selene opened the door with a movement perfectly visible to the guard behind her, moving two steps towards the round table in the center of the small space.

She glanced at a woman who was no longer particularly young, with short gray hair and blue, almost glacial eyes, dressed in an elegant and well-made suit. She was comfortably sitting on the front chair, and together with her, there were five other armed men, three seated and the other two behind the female figure.

Máša Kadlek stared at her with an intrigued expression, a strangely tender smile on her lips, her hands placed on the table in a cordial pose. «Do you need something, child?»

The girl was once again aware of how her appearance made her seem _hatefully_ harmless in the eyes of others, even though she had to admit that in certain circumstances it was useful for her to appear fragile and helpless; she knew well how tattoos gave her a forcedly adult look, as if she were trying to gain her own space in a world that was too mature.

«Helga Hartmann contacted you this afternoon. I am here for the favor she requested of you», she answered, tilting her face slightly.

The woman looked at her with a surprised expression for an instant, the smile that vanished from her lips.

«Oh, it's _you_. I must say you have quite interesting friends, child, but as I promised Helga, I will convince Otar.» She paused, raising a hand and resting it on the arm of the man on her right. «Jan, escort our guest to the theater and be sure to call me as soon as you are there.»

Selene gave her a nod and a raised lip corner. «Thank you for your time, Mrs. Kadlek.»

«And for what, child? We do what we can for the family.» Máša looked at her for a moment before returning to smile at her. «May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?»

The girl stood up for a moment, hesitating for a short while.

«Selene», she simply said, staring at the owner of the place with the obvious intent not to appear disturbed by that question.

Young McTavish didn't have to tell her last name, Kadlek hadn't expressly asked for it, but for a long moment, she believed that the woman would _demand_ it.

The owner of the Red Queen nodded imperceptibly, waiting for a short while before being aware that the girl wouldn't add anything else. «A beautiful name for a beautiful _child_.»

When she was finally outside the Red Queen, in front of her the gunman who was supposed to guide her through the heart of the Dvalis district, Selene was for a moment extremely confused.

There had been something in that place and the way she had been constantly observed that made her annoyingly alert and attentive. Not that she was frightened or intimidated, but she began to feel the weight of what she was doing and a part of herself felt discovered, exposed. She knew she could rely on her abilities, her strength and the _ghostly_ presence of her uncle, but in the end, she was _alone_.

Like when she had entered the technological site in Nantes and other places similar to that. Like when she had had to deal with a security system that had surely been calibrated to specifically look for her and her genetic code. Like when she had had to live those terrible hours of emptiness, waiting, desire to die, to give in, there in that shelter in Scotland, years and years before.

She couldn't help but think of Adam and how sadly, almost with anger and a primordial feeling of self-loathing, she had got used to feeling so quickly with _her shoulders covered_ in a much more physical and immediate way.

Having to be prepared to face certain battles on her own was almost reassuring, but annoyingly disheartening. It gave her an idea of what her life would be like in the future if her uncle and she had to go their own way, far from Prague.

She knew that the collaboration with Jensen would be broken as soon as any trace of the Hymeneal Plan was destroyed, but she was equally sure that she wasn't destined to live a normal life, without constantly looking around in anticipation of an enemy ready to attack and destroy her. She also knew that she couldn't live constantly with that feeling of continuous danger hovering around her, but at the end of the day, she had been raised and trained to experience that certainty for so many years that she needed very little to put aside even the slightest hint of fear.

The fact that for a short time she was able to experience the essence of a simple and genuine existence gave her the desire to return to that very simplicity and genuineness, to have the ephemeral pretext of doing something else for herself and her life. To ensure the memory of her parents that peace and quiet that they could no longer experience, to keep the promise she had made once she _discovered_ the pain of their loss, of the mourning. Not to make their death in vain and to celebrate them every day in the way she knew they would appreciate most, guided by her heart and her feelings.

If she had to die that night in a shitty place like that, far away from her friends and her uncle, at least she could be sure she was doing the right thing, helping Koller and still giving Artair the proof that she was always ready to follow the right path, but with the melancholic awareness of who was leaving behind, maybe, _someone_ who didn't deserve it.

Thinking about Adam made her bizarrely emotional, like when she was thinking about Damian.

The dangerousness of that thought gave birth to a new indefinite void in the mouth of her stomach, as if she had just discovered something terrible and distressing, much more frightening than any prediction of a wandering life still conducted in solitude and sadness.

Realizing that emotion left her much more frightened and upset, much more alone and desperate. Realizing that she was missing him made her almost burst into tears there, surrounded by people who didn't even see her or saw only the worst of themselves reflected in her blue eyes.

Since when did Adam Jensen go so deep into her soul?

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

The man, as she remembered, called Jan, threw sporadically a few glances at her to make sure she was following him. They passed a wooden door onto a small corridor, then opened into a huge open space with a couple of cars parked on the side of the road and other buildings on the sides.

At the distance, the theater stood out bright and rather imposing, several men on guard at the entrance and a few others in the area stared at her with curious and surprised expressions. Probably being directly accompanied by a companion of theirs allowed her to overcome that part of the district without problems.

The entrance to the big building was elevated by five marble steps separated centrally by stakes and red cloth to mark the path; the two large doors were open inwards, showing a well-kept and sumptuous environment, with supporting columns and a staircase leading to the upper floor.

«This way», Jan said to her, giving her a quick glance, followed by a nod of that hand he could easily move from the assault rifle.

They walked into the large central hall of the theater, several boxes arranged along the way and then an expanse of armchairs to the stage. There were many Dvali men there, together with some women dressed in skimpy dresses who performed sensual but uncoordinated dances, in the background rather [interesting music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlHSRP5kjqg). Some of them looked at Selene with lively interest, surprised by her presence, but reassured by that of the henchman just in front of her.

They reached the right side of the large hall, continuing in a corridor beyond a door to the back of the stage. They crossed that space and turned right again in the direction of a flight of stairs down to the dressing rooms; there she found about five men playing poker, sitting around a circular table.

One of them got up from his chair as soon as he saw her, recognizing her: it was the one she had kicked in the abdomen in Koller's store.

«What the fuck is this bitch doing here?»

Jan nodded to him with his hand. «Mrs. Kadlek sent her.»

«What?!», he blurted out again, coming closer.

Selene slipped her hands into the pockets of the jacket, sneering just as she looked at him. «It hurts, doesn't it?»

The man was on the verge of overtaking Jan, but he intercepted him by placing a hand on his shoulder. «Go back to your seat, or Mrs. Kadlek will have your balls cut off, if you keep going.»

The young woman remained for a moment with a sly smile on her lips, while her new _companion_ beckoned her to continue to the only nearby passage. The girl took one last look at the other man and walked towards the rest of the room, finding an open door on her right with a rectangular window directly carved into the wall.

When she entered what appeared to be a very well-kept office, with silver leather sofas and a desk with a large screen behind it, she immediately noticed the presence of a well-dressed man with dark clothes, black hair colored at the sides of the temples by white tufts and brown eyes. The physique was no longer that of a young man, but inspired a certain grandeur. He immediately showed a genuinely attentive and subtly intrigued face.

«Jan, who is this pretty young lady?», asked who was probably Otar Botkoveli.

The idea of being face to face with a mafia boss caused her to pour a stream of adrenaline into her veins, perfectly mixed with the glacial need to remain calm and thoughtful. She took a look at the laptop on the desk and knew that her uncle was surely already receiving the access data remotely.

Jan stood beside her for a moment, passing her as he picked up his vu-phone.

«Mrs. Kadlek sent her.»

After leaving the device to the other man, he simply moved slightly to the side.

«Máša», greeted Botkoveli with a doubtful expression, his eyes fixed on Selene. «You sent me a little girl?»

A long pause made him arch his thick eyebrows, the expression that was initially frowning and then changed into surprise and amazement.

«Um... I see. Well... It's a strange situation, but I understand the request.»

He nodded slowly, bending his free arm over his chest in a gesture of weighting, supporting with his hand the elbow to hold better the phone.

«Yes, I know you prefer to maintain business relationships with Hartmann, after all, I prefer it too. All right, it will be done. Have a good evening.»

When the leader of the Dvalis returned the vu-phone to his subordinate, the older man took the trouble to bring a hand to his chin, staring at BlueDevil's niece with eyes lit with curiosity. He got more comfortable by leaning slightly with his buttocks on the desk behind him, looking at the young girl in a nod of control.

«And so, it was you who knocked down four of my men alone. You don't seem augmented, even though they claimed otherwise.»

«I'm not, in fact», replied Selene, keeping her hands still in the pockets of her jacket, her face serious.

Otar nodded imperceptibly, turning his head to Jan and then back to the girl.

«I must admit that I thought my men were wrong, or that it was someone else.»

He took a thoughtful pause, bending slightly to the side to pour himself a glass of some local whisky.

«So, you work in that bookstore? It must be very important if you go as far as asking Helga Hartmann for a favor.»

The young woman immediately understood the man's intent and promptly brought the conversation to a significantly different level. «Actually, it was Helga who owed me a favor, and I simply reclaimed it.»

She took some time to ponder whether to add more, considering providing the same lie she had given the blonde woman in Most.

«To pay you, my boss is forced to pay me less. I don't like the idea that my only source of income is compromised in any way, and for your _family,_ I believe that the absence of a payment from a single business doesn't cause any problems.»

Botkoveli looked at her with a small smile, amused by such frankness. «I could probably pay you more, if the problem is money.»

Selene shook her face in a nod of denial, while still maintaining a friendly expression. «Sorry, but I'm not in the habit of dancing half-naked for the pleasure of some stranger, nor of prostituting myself.»

Otar burst out laughing loudly, swallowing in a single gulp the contents of the alcohol poured and bringing the glass back to the desk behind him.

«Oh, child, I wasn't actually referring to that possible professional career, although you are quite attractive to many clients. If you are really as good as my men told me, you might have a certain aptitude for other jobs that don't involve setting up old novels in a store in a district abandoned to itself.»

The girl barely clenched her fists in the pockets of her jacket, raising her chin in a nod to regain total control of her emotions: the man's response had made her nervous about the implicit message he wanted to communicate to her, as if Překážka was destined to have no long life.

«I don't think four of your guards like me», Selene added.

The man giggled again, nodding slyly. «Yeah, about that...»

His brown eyes shifted to Jan, who had an unsettling sneer on his lips while distractedly checked the weapon in his hands.

«I accept out of respect for Hartmann and Kadlek the request not to demand any more payment from Vaclav Koller, also because dealing with that aug only brought me problems that I couldn't solve», and those words gave Selene the feeling that Botkoveli was referring to the help that the doctor had received from Adam, «but what about the assault on my men?»

The girl exhaled quickly, letting her hands slide out of her pockets to possibly be much quicker to act. «Maybe you could teach your subordinates not to touch a woman against her will.»

«Oh», began the other, sincerely surprised. «Did they touch you? Really? They didn't tell me this.»

The young woman let out an amused verse, even if she began to sense a feeling of tension. «Well... One of them stood behind me and put his hand on my back. I don't appreciate physical contact from such individuals.»

Botkoveli nodded again, staring at her. «And you beat all four of them?»

Selene took a look at him, sensing what the man wanted to do to put her in a corner.

«If I had really beaten them up, they would be in the hospital by now, and not here in your family nest. I just made it clear that I didn't like their presence. First with words, of course, and then with other means that apparently they didn't find pleasant, but there it is...»

Otar observed her again for a moment, showing another nod of consent and moving from the desk, walking a few steps towards her.

«I understand your version of the facts well, and I can also understand that the presence of four armed men in your workplace may have upset you, but I would say that we should consider paying me back for the damage you have done to me.»

Selene couldn't help but arch her eyebrows, her blue eyes suddenly made more serious and attentive.

«What damage? Did the _children_ come crying back to you and you had to comfort them, hold them on your knees?»

The man pointed at her with one hand as he turned towards Jan, giggling. The guard didn't react as well to the provocation, revealing a wave of initial anger for that comment.

«Oh, listen to her, Jan! What a temper.»

The other Dvali seemed to calm down immediately because of the tone expressed by his boss, taking an amused look at her, returning to _play_ almost immediately with his weapon.

«Kitten has claws, Otar. Or at least, so she says.»

Artair's niece slightly bent her head, determined to take advantage of everything that could be useful to her before running the risk of having to respond again with violence. She hoped that her uncle was ready to perform at a distance what was necessary to get her out of there without having to fight.

«All right, this time I can understand your resentment, but I'm not going to give in to anything else. Our relationship has begun and ends here», she said in a serious tone, bringing her hands forward in a gesture to hypothetically call for some peace.

Botkoveli looked at her again, lifting a couple of fingers to his chin to weigh what he had just heard. «Eh, my child. That's not how the world works.»

«Yes, it is», she continued. «It happens when someone says 'no' to you and you have to accept their answer.»

Otar laughed loudly, approaching another couple of steps. «I _have to_? I _have to_ accept what? Do you really think you can come here to my house and tell me what to do with you?»

Selene sighed deeply, raising her head a little more to face him, the adrenaline in her body that finally awakened her senses and erased any doubt and any insecurity: even alone she could have massacred those people, covering the walls with their bowels and their own shit.

Part of her would have wanted only the very first input to do so.

«Let's put it this way», she began by tilting her head to the laptop on the desk. «My shoulders are covered, Botkoveli. Just now someone who is keeping an eye on me has logged on to your laptop and is downloading everything about your business. Check it out for yourself.»

Otar took a perplexed look at her, turning to Jan and then looking at her again. «What the hell are you babbling about?»

Finally, Artair's voice in her ear gave her precise instructions that the girl repeated without hesitation.

«Maybe we can start by squandering the money in that account at the Palisade.»

The numbers she listed afterward made the man freeze, who quickly moved to the laptop to check the screen. His brown eyes showed as much astonishment as a primordial hint of anger.

«Your game is getting dangerous. For you, little girl.»

Selene also kept an eye on Jan, bending slightly with the body in his direction, so that she could control them both.

«I'm not the one who upped the stakes», she replied, pausing to make her next statement more comprehensive. «I don't want to have anything to do with you Dvalis, I don't intend to submit to any request and I don't intend to please a bunch of criminals who, socially speaking, deserve to go to jails, but if it were up to me, I would send you all to the gallows.»

She took a direct look at the guard who had escorted her from the Red Queen to the theater, noting how ready the man was to raise his assault rifle against her, probably waiting for an order from his boss.

«If something happens to the bookstore where I work, you will see your money disappear. If I see any of your henchmen even walk around the shop, I'll send certain information to those who can't wait to have it. You Dvalis have already found yourself in Interpol's crosshairs, we can give them the rest to complete the work.»

She tilted her face, clenching her fists against her hips, aware that what she was about to say could definitely trigger the spark in that decidedly tense verbal exchange.

«If anything happens to Koller, I will come back here and kill you all. And if something happens to me now, in the unfortunate event that I get injured or killed, someone will come after me.»

In her mind, the memory of Vaclav's words resurfaced, when he had briefly told her what _another_ person had done to help him. She hoped that her idea wasn't totally useless, because if the name she was about to pronounce wasn't at all known to the current leader of the Dvalis, probably part of her certainty of getting out of there without fighting faded into the air worthless.

«I don't know if Adam Jensen's name will remind you of anything, but trust me when I tell you that after me, he will visit you.»

Otar collected himself barely, the look that clearly showed an obvious glow, sign that he _knew_ the agent and remembered him.

«Jensen, you said?» The man let slip a grimace, shaking his head. «Get out of here, little girl», he added, raising his hand in a gesture to invite her to leave. «Consider your request granted, but if you give me any more trouble, I won't be so merciful.»

 _Christ_ , the relief Selene felt radiating inside her made her almost tremble. She had a brief moment of uncertainty, that sudden _change of course_ that confused her for a quick second. She waved goodbye to the two men and walked towards the exit, the expression of Jan surprised and the look of Botkoveli who told him not to do anything.

She ignored the five men sitting at the gambling table and walked the previous way backward, going up the stairs, past the backstage, moving with a relaxed and quick step into the large hall of that area and finally continuing beyond the entrance, the cold air of the Prague evening that gave her a sudden burst of energy.

« _Are you okay?_ », Artair asked through the earpiece, the tone of voice equally relieved.

Selene passed the square, walking in the direction of the narrow street that would lead her to the rest of the Red Light District.

«Yes, uncle. I'm on my way home, but I want to warn Vaclav too», and to hell with the desire to have a beer at the Irish Stool.

BlueDevil remained silent for a few moments, probably following her with the GPL signal beyond the gates of that area. « _You did well._ »

The girl let a half-laugh slip, hiding it quickly while ignoring a bunch of drunks on the side of the road.

«Do you realize that all I had to do was mention Adam's name to see the situation completely resolved?» She shook her head, halfway between a bizarre skepticism and consistent disbelief. «I can't say if it makes me feel good or destabilized me, but I swear that as soon as _he_ comes back, I will be able to choose whether to hug him or slap him.»

McTavish burst out laughing in her ear, relieving the tension she had been feeling for several minutes. When she was finally in her apartment, she greeted her relative and contacted Koller to inform him of the success of her plan.

With the vu-phone in her hand, her lips still wet from the copious amount of water she had drunk, she leaned against one of the kitchen cabinets, the jacket left on the dining table together with the earpiece and the device that she had to give back to her uncle, the stomach that finally claimed some food.

She looked at the phone between her fingers, barely squeezing it.

Despite the relief, despite the certainty of having made it, Selene felt lost.

She observed again the device, activating the screen and looking for the messaging app, but when she finally set the lock again and brought the phone to her lips in a grimace of uncertainty, she shook her face in a nod of denial. After a quick sigh, she rested it on the shelf behind her and moved to the bathroom for a long shower.

The hot water freed her from the last remnants of a day that wasn't exactly light, giving her the impression of being able to feel all the unpleasant sensations that she had experienced slipping away. She would have liked to put between them that heavy awareness like a boulder that was still standing in the exact center of her body, but she wasn't even able to move it. It remained pressed there, between her heart and stomach, or perhaps above them, overwhelming and cumbersome.

Maybe it was simply a sudden thought provoked by nervousness and the feeling of being alone and, at the end of the day, not really safe, but then why did she continue to feel the solidity of that pondering even while she was at home? Why did her mind insist on proposing a truth that it was difficult to consider sincere? Why couldn't she stop thinking about how suddenly she missed Adam? Even if on the battlefield he had proved to be incredibly _precious_ , what reason did she have to consider his absence as significant even in a normal moment like that?

It wasn't the same feeling she had when she was thinking about Damian, but it was damn close. Adam was quite different from her instructor, if she thought about their personality, but there was something about him that had ended up unleashing in the young girl the same safety of a close and friendly figure. Something unconditional and unusual, perhaps the same bizarre empathy she was _afflicted with,_ with the difference that Jensen didn't need Selene to find the answers he was looking for.

Or maybe not, maybe she was wrong. Perhaps the ex-SWAT needed the same help and required it in a different way, trying not to burden others with his needs, but there had been words he had said, gestures he had made, looks he had given her that could indicate that possibility.

That he too felt similarly the feeling of having found someone he could trust, someone he _wanted_ to trust, and was in his own way surprised, shocked, frightened?

A month earlier, on her return from the infiltration into the subsidiary structure of Versalife, tired and hurt, she had wished Damian's closeness, she had wished to know his phone number, to contact him and ask him to reach her, because she was alone and scared, and Fisher had been the only person who had always given her back courage and strength even when she thought she didn't have any. Now, however, she had felt the deep need to send Adam a message, but she hadn't given in. Part of her screamed out loud that it was a foolish and childish desire.

Selene tilted her face upwards, the jet of water gently swept over her closed eyelids, forehead, cheeks, lips, leaving the palms of her hands resting on the ceramic tiles inside the box-shower.

She was missing Adam, and had no idea how to overcome that new certainty.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene gets a special surprise a few days before Christmas.

Winter had also come to Prague, with its icy climate and sleet that had taken root gently on the lawns of the city park, even though the sunlight that was peeping out of the clouds at the time had already made everything simply a little wetter and brighter.

Artair observed with a smile on his lips Řehoř Simek and Hélèn Cheraz bickering like children: they were tenderly discussing how to arrange on the two tables in the public garden dining area the food brought from home by Selene and the other woman, prepared for the birthday of Nela Simek, the couple's twelve-year-old daughter.

It was Sunday, a pleasant Sunday of _almost_ theend of December. It was two days before Christmas, and BlueDevil had his mind turned to everything that was crowding his thoughts but, at the same time, to what he could observe at that moment.

His niece was in the company of Nela and some of the little girl's schoolmates, busy making them play and have fun in the box set up with swings and rides suitable for their age.

He was used to Selene's smile, but never as much as he could see at that moment, much more carefree and cheerful. It was the smile that the girl deserved to have on her lips and that made her so similar to Sheena.

McTavish took another look at Řehoř and Hélèn; Simek held his wife in an affectionate embrace from behind and snapped a kiss on her cheek, her ebony skin shining like chocolate and the enthusiastic expression of those who were completing the seating arrangements with some _pleasant_ difficulty.

Nela and her friends formed a small group of six children who were too lively: they had already offered Selene to eat at the same table, and the young girl had been almost willing to comply with the request, but they would have eaten lunch a little too uncomfortable if she had sat down with them; in the end, the girl was forced to refuse, promising however that they would continue to play even after lunch.

Artair retrieved the vu-phone from the sweatshirt pocket and took a glance at the digital watch, putting it away after a moment and looking around, mainly towards the direction of the metro stop.

He smiled to himself, an amused certainty in his mind that he foretold the possibility of seeing his niece considerably happier during that day — and despite it was strange to him to come to terms with that awareness, to be sure that Selene would be unexpectedly happy with the presence of those who were about to join them, he could do no other than live with it, even if it would set off little _alarm bells_ ringingin him.

The hacker could no longer ignore what was happening to his niece. Selene had always shown a much more marked responsibility than his on many occasions, incredible and unsuspected goodness of heart for a person who had experienced the horror she had experienced, but the man was still able to recognize when certain attitudes typical of childhood and adolescence not fully lived were showing behaviors and actions a little more impulsive and uncontrolled.

McTavish understood her, gave her the freedom she needed, but at the same time, he was always ready to support and guide her when she seemed to need it most.

BlueDevil looked at the girl with the younger ones for a few more moments, and then returned to help Řehoř and Hélèn with the final preparations; he had already warned the couple of the possibility that someone might show up for a simple greeting, and they had also made themselves available to reserve a seat at the adults' table.

Artair didn't believe that it would be necessary, or perhaps it was better to admit that he wasn't sure how the other person would respond to such an offer, but he had thanked the couple in advance anyway, especially after informing them that it was an augmented person.

He lowered himself near the thermal bags in which the food was still warm to begin to recover the two large baking dishes under Hélèn's request, leaving them on the edge of the outdoor table, while Řehoř put soda cans and small bottles of water on the children's side.

«Oh, good morning», said the keyboardist's wife, the brownish look beyond the hacker.

Artair first observed the woman for an instant and then turned in the same direction.

Adam Jensen, despite the shields obscuring his eyes, had a corner of his lips raised in a small smile. Dressed invariably in his long black coat, underneath it he seemed to have opted for a turtleneck sweater and dark pants, good boots on his feet.

The man took a couple of steps closer, hinting at a greeting with the head, followed shortly after by a few words. «Good morning, sorry to disturb you.»

«No disturbance», replied Řehoř. «Artair had already warned us of your arrival. Would you like to join us? We have prepared too much food.»

The man took one look at the hack and remained silent for a moment. «I don't want to disturb, I just came by to say hello.»

BlueDevil momentarily ignored the response of the ex-SWAT, taking care instead of making quick presentations. The couple didn't hesitate for a moment to shake the man's robotic hand, and he, as always when asked for such a gesture, responded with extreme attention in the grip, making it almost weak — intimately amazed that the two had no doubts in approaching to claim such a natural action.

«Seriously, Jensen, why don't you stay and eat with us?», Artair asked with a calm face.

He put a quick pat on the agent’s shoulder, moving far enough away to take a look towards the area where he knew he could find the children and his niece.

«I believe...» The hacker didn't even complete the sentence because a quick shadow cast itself on the other man.

Adam was totally unprepared for the light weight he felt on himself immediately after looking in the same direction as the other man. His carbon fingers found themselves slightly suspended in mid-air as he balanced his body to accompany the slight shift.

Even before he recognized her shape and appearance, he recognized the scent of Selene, the scent of jasmine and cinnamon, and that something sweet that seemed typical of her, which remained latent in his olfactory memory until her reappearance.

A smell that only at that moment gave him the confidence to find himself at home, something that sharpened the duality in the emotions he felt — to be able to hold Selene and at the same time know that he shouldn't have wanted it so much.

The girl's arms were wrapped around his shoulders, while her skinny and trained legs wrapped in dark jeans had hooked just above his hips.

Adam felt uncomfortable only for a moment, the idea of being watched by other people while Selene had literally jumped into his arms almost made him feel embarrassed, a touch of redness that pinched his nose, but as soon as the young woman sank her face against his neck in an even more tender grip, the ex-SWAT was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of calm that erased any doubt.

« _Christ,_ Jensen, how I've missed you...», murmured the girl in a low, somewhat trembling tone.

An agonizing _question_ made him ask himself if she was really so happy to see him that she risked crying, her face hidden from everyone.

It was at that moment that the man responded to the gesture, carrying his palms on Selene's back and squeezing her in turn for a few seconds, pressing imperceptibly his lips against the young woman's right shoulder, the zipper of the anthracite-colored sweatshirt that barely scratched his beard.

He was at home. He felt at home.

He wanted to stay in that embrace forever, ignore the outside world, and return to being enveloped only by the scent of her.

The young woman had whispered to him that she had missed him, but he hadn't said a single word to her. The truth was that Adam, too, had perceived her absence, something that had worn him out, surprised him, frightened him. He only unleashed a primordial burst of disgust at himself while he was so far from Prague, in those moments when he had had the chance, or the condemnation, to be alone with his thoughts.

When Selene left the position, bringing her feet back to the soil, she slipped with her tattooed hands on the man's arms, her face raised in a radiant expression.

«When did you come back? Why are you here?», she began, casting a glance at her uncle, discovering him smiling in turn, albeit with an obvious wrinkle of uncertainty to furrow his forehead. «Did you know this?»

The relative made a vague gesture of his hand, nodding with his head, but it was Adam who responded, carefully scrutinizing her to see if any tears had escaped — no, they hadn't, but part of him had almost hoped for it, the intrinsic message that the crying would eventually communicate to him.

«I came back last night, but I only contacted your uncle this morning.»

The girl barely showed a fake pouty expression, lowering the corners of her lips, even though she smiled without being able to avoid it. «You called him and not me? You are really incorrigible.»

The ex-SWAT hesitated for a moment, tilting his face and trying to ignore the bizarre heat that he felt again on his cheeks. «I wanted to surprise you.»

Selene observed him for a few more moments, unable to completely decipher his face because of the shields, but absolutely determined not to find anything negative.

«Save yourself in the corner, Jensen.» She paused, taking a look at the others, and then brought it back to him. «Will you stay with us? Can he stay with us?»

«We have already invited him», replied Řehoř, placing the fifth plate on the table nearby. «In fact, I'm already setting the table for you too, big boy.»

Adam remained silent, shaking his head weakly, the gentle grip of Selene's fingers at the height of his artificial arms a vague input on sensors. «I don't want to disturb and then I didn't bring anything.»

«Your company will do very well», added Hélèn with a smile and an eyebrow raised solely at the girl. «And then, seriously, Selene and I cooked too much.»

The young woman stared at him with encouraging eyes, her hands slipping even lower to touch his and finally hook a pair of fingers to the agent's robotic ones.

Jensen _barely_ lifted his head for that sudden contact, staring at her surprised by beyond the dermal grafts, the sensors in his extremities that suggested specific, but not in-depth information.

And yet he found himself responding to the gentle squeeze with an imperceptible, trembling movement, the need to better touch the girl's skin which manifested itself with destructive efficiency. When, after a long sigh, he deactivated the shields, Selene understood the answer before she even listened to it, showing herself even more enthusiastic.

«All right. Thank you», he said to the other three people.

Artair took a moment, surprised to see for the first time the _alien_ gaze of man, aware of how much that gesture should indicate a certain willingness to make himself more _friendly_ , or less inscrutable.

The niece of BlueDevil moved a few steps, addressing the keyboardist and his wife. «I'm going to call Nela and her friends.»

Adam was distracted by the movement of her purple hair held together by a voluminous tail, while she reached a nearby area equipped with every attraction for children and teens.

The hacker approached him again, the expression relaxed but lawfully attentive. «I had no idea that my niece would be so expansive, I'm sorry.»

The agent watched him for a moment, trying to appear calm in turn, although he could admit to himself how much the young woman's embrace had left him quite unprepared and incredulous — and how much McTavish was probably also trying to probe the ground about that sudden closeness between the ex-SWAT and his niece.

_Easy, Jensen, or Artair will wake up and smell the coffee, if he hasn't already understood everything. And he will try to castrate you with his bare hands._

«It's not a problem. I'm starting to get used to her impulsiveness.»

The other nodded, giggling after a quick contemplative silence. «Yes, "impulsiveness" is the correct term.»

The man paid attention to the tone used by the hack, intrigued. «Did something happen while I was away?»

BlueDevil crossed his arms to his chest, squeezing his shoulders and nodding his head at the girl.

«Nothing serious, really. More or less.» He paused, a brief nod of denial accompanied by a sardonic smile. «It is that Selene, when it comes to doing the right thing, lets herself be carried away by her marked sense of justice and goodness of heart. But nothing serious has happened, otherwise, we wouldn't be here to talk about it.»

Her laughter anticipated her arrival, with Selene bent slightly forward in a running position and a mulatto little girl straddling on her back, quickly followed by a rowdy group of five other kids who must have been the same age.

«Come on, take a seat. Then we'll come back to play», said the young woman, letting Nela slide with her feet on the ground.

The daughter of Řehoř and Hélèn went around the hacker's niece and harpooned her with arms and legs. «Selene, you promised me that you would stay with me all the time.»

«But I'm not leaving», she replied, smiling, bending her face to touch her nose with her. «I promise you that afterward I'll make you climb on that structure. In fact, I'll make all six of you climb.»

The keyboardist places the glasses on the table for the little ones. «No, don't put strange ideas in their heads...»

«And then in time I'll take you to get your first tattoo, to drink your first beer», continued the young woman to poke her musical partner.

Hélèn burst out laughing loudly, approaching the girl and supporting her with a body movement. «The first joint...»

«Hey, enough. Children, sit down. Now», replied her husband, the expression slightly exasperated. «You two», he continued, pointing a finger first at his wife and then at Artair's niece. «Enough ganging up. You are not a good example. I already have to deal with two women in my life who drive me crazy, I don't need a third.»

Nela left Selene with a cheerful face, accepting her father's request and taking her place together with the other friends, who were having the same fun watching the scene.

Selene squeezed herself in the shoulders, giggling. «You'll never stop me from being the fantastic and perfect aunt who takes your daughter to concerts. Or university parties.»

BlueDevil burst out laughing, shaking his head. «Řehoř, you allowed this. I warned you.»

The girl approached the relative, addressing him with an amused expression. «Hey...», she complained. «I'm not so terrible.»

Adam barely held back a quiet laugh, raising his hands as a sign of peace when he saw a surprised look from the girl. She revealed for a moment an astonished expression, opening her mouth a little bit for a fake, offended grimace, reaching him with a few steps.

«I can't believe that the only one who defends me is Hélèn», made Selene, crossing her arms to her chest and denying with her head in a nod of theatrical dissent.

«Actually, I'm not really defending you. It's just female camaraderie to annoy him a little bit», added the other pointing to her husband, causing a burst of general laughter.

Lunch continued calm and relaxed, full of simple and entertaining chats mainly managed by Řehoř, Hélèn and Artair, while the children sitting at the other table discussed the new cartoon just discovered, some video games, or, very sporadically, a couple of school events.

Between Selene and Adam, she was more the one who intervened from time to time in the dialogues, even if very often she seemed to prefer to linger between her thoughts, a bit like the man was doing in the same way.

She was found sitting next to him, he on the outside seat of the bench, the girl in the middle and Hélèn on the other end, Artair and Řehoř who had taken the front seat. Every once in a while, Selene, between a movement made to drink from the glass or to serve herself a portion of some dish, leaned against his shoulder at arm height, or touched his leg with hers for a few seconds, a contact without other pretensions or meanings, but he felt pleasantly involved by all that physicality, by the way she had to just rotate her hips and sometimes _push him_ to absorb her light movements.

He missed feeling her so close.

In the _obligatory_ break between the main meals and the chocolate cake bought by BlueDevil, the keyboard player and his wife decided to take the young woman's place to let their daughter and her schoolmates play again, thus leaving Selene some time to spend with her uncle and Adam.

Artair had stood up for a moment to retrieve his jacket from the point where they had left the thermal bags, the effects of digestion beginning to be felt, while his niece was sitting next to the ex-SWAT, her body slightly slipped forward from the bench with one hand on her belly.

«Ahh, I'm so stuffed...», she commented, massaging her abdomen.

Jensen took a long look at her, amused by her physicality.

He too had to admit that he had eaten more than expected, being considerably surprised to discover that the two big lasagna baking dishes, one classic and one vegetarian, had been prepared by the hacker's niece; the keyboardist's wife, on the other hand, had brought three quiches typical of her native country, definitely new for his eating habits.

There was a lot of food left, actually, but it was certain that nothing would go to waste.

McTavish returned to the table, sitting again on the opposite side of the two. «How come Koller didn't come? You invited him, didn't you?»

«Of course», replied Selene, nodding with conviction. «But for him Sunday is a kind of sacred day. It's already so much that I've managed to convince him over the past few weeks to watch movies together at my house. If he comes over tonight, I'll see if I can get him to taste something. That boy doesn't eat enough, and if he eats, he doesn't do it healthily.»

Jensen found himself lifting a corner of his lips for that sentence, drinking from the beer bottle he still had in front of him. He felt tempted to take up the word with the two Scots, a pleasant way to get involved in that light chatter.

«So», he began, an exhaustive pause to attract their attention. «Tell me what happened.»

The young woman stood up, looking surprised at him, and then took a look of reproach at the relative. «No, why did you have to tell him?»

BlueDevil raised his hands in a nod, showing himself unprepared. «But no, I told him nothing.»

Adam barely frowned, intrigued that Artair seemed so uncertain by his niece's suddenly defensive attitude. «He only hinted at something, Selene. What did you do?»

The girl puffed at her relative, her blue gaze frowned, only to return to look at the agent. «Nothing, really. Don't worry.»

The man denied with his head, a small smile that threatened to blossom on his lips surrounded by his beard; the memory of her when he had tried with little success not to answer him with the same evasive behavior before the departure came back to his mind.

«Uh-huh, don't try it. I asked you to stay out of trouble.»

The young woman squeezed herself in the shoulders, shaking her head. «In this case, I can say in my defense that it is the trouble that has become attached to me.» She paused, her blue eyes a little tired from that sudden change of _atmosphere_. «But really, Adam. Nothing important happened.»

Finally hearing his name pronounced by the girl after almost a month of absence — twenty-eight days, to be precise — caused a pleasant sensation in the man, although he managed to conceal it as he turned to look at the hacker, urging him with an arched eyebrow to take the floor.

Artair first stared at him and then at his niece, standing up with his hands raised to his chest.

«I need a walk to make room for the cake», he said, walking quickly to the pedestrian path, quickly disappearing from their sight.

Selene puffed, stretching her arms on the table and leaning on it with part of her torso, stretching slightly. She turned her head toward the agent, crossing her limbs in front of her and resting her chin between them, in a pose that indicated a desperate need to return to more childlike thoughts.

«So?», Jensen repeated, ignoring her non-verbal language.

He decided to get up a little to sit astride the bench, so that he was completely turned towards the young woman, his coat released beyond his straight back that almost touched the turf of the ground.

The young girl puffed, subtly exasperated, extending her arms to tap on the wooden table with her fingers. «Can't you just gloss over the matter? Tell me about what you did.»

The ex-SWAT just smiled, amused by that attempt. «If you have a lot of grievances it will surely be something serious.» He hesitated for a moment, nodding to the request she had made. «And anyway, I cannot tell you about my missions with Interpol. They are confidential information.»

BlueDevil's niece nodded imperceptibly, tilting her face over her still outstretched arms. «I know, but I think you can tell me if everything went well.»

Adam observed her for a few moments, almost accustomed to how easy it was to interpret the girl's gestures and words: her way of showing apprehension and affection left him still troubled, even surprised, but it was something he couldn't find a different approach to.

After those days away he definitely needed to feel a little more human again, and for the first time in a long time, it also seemed incredibly easy and spontaneous to give in to his desire.

«Yes, everything went well. Now can you tell me what happened to you?»

The young woman sighed, eventually deciding to emulate the man's position with bored theatrical movements, in the end finding herself touching with her knees those of him.

«Well... You know that I work in Vaclav's bookstore.»

Jensen nodded, the attentive expression even though he continued to perceive the small smile breaking his lip line, a direct consequence of being there with her and finally feeling more relaxed.

«Okay, while I was in the store doing my duty, four men came in looking for your doctor», continued Artair's niece, taking a break to probe the ground, to understand from the man's face what he was already sensing. «They were Dvalis, who came in to ask for protection money, but when I told them that Vaclac wasn't in the store, which was true, they tried to touch me, and then I reacted and knocked them down all four. I dismantled their weapons and sent them away.»

Adam immediately felt when his jaw tightened slightly, together with the look made slightly tenser by what he had heard, the smile that faded irremediably.

«I'll have to talk to Koller. He cannot think that you are the one to solve this problem of his.»

Selene put her head between her shoulders, a guilty smile on her lips and her blue eyes struggling to keep up with the agent's gaze. «Actually, I've already solved it.»

When BlueDevil's niece finished telling what she had done several days earlier, the ex-SWAT kept his back straight and his left fist over the table, the other one on the leg on the same side.

«No, wait, let me get this straight», began Adam massaging the bridge of the nose between the eyes perfectly visible. «You went back alone to that woman in Most and then you went to the lair of the Dvalis and you... You threatened their leader. _Alone_.»

The man shook his head, carrying his right hand on his cheek in a nod of incredulity and exasperation.

«Selene, what the hell were you thinking?»

«I had to do something», she said, the head slightly exposed forward to give more emphasis to her sentence. «I couldn't wait for those assholes to show up at the bookstore again, maybe with the intention of destroying the store. Or worse, to hurt Vaclav. He is my friend, I had to help him.»

Adam initially responded with a nod of dissent, not to tell her that she was wrong, but rather to make it clear that he felt rather doubtful about how she had reacted.

«You risked your life. You realize that, don't you?», he said finally, the tone of voice obviously of reproach and, of that only he was aware, of concern.

«And I would do it again», she admitted, insecure about how to conclude that discussion without completely compromising the feelings felt in the last hour of that day.

She had been so happy to finally see Adam. She recognized him instantly even from afar and couldn't resist the idea of repeating and reliving the wonder of being able to embrace him, regardless of how misunderstood her gesture might be.

«Listen, I turned to my uncle because I knew how risky what I was doing was, so I wasn't completely alone. And then, all I had to do was mention your name to finally convince Botkoveli to _bury the hatchet,_ because I remembered that you had also helped Vaclav with the Dvalis.»

The ex-SWAT collected himself, just surprised. «My name?»

Selene nodded, her hands wrinkled just between her legs, directly on the portion of the bench visible between them.

«Yes, I said that if something happened to me, if I was hurt or killed, you, well... You would have gone to them to... To make them pay, that's it.»

She paused, trying to smile to relieve the bizarre tension in her chest.

«So, yes, on balance you helped me even while you were away.»

Adam shook his head, sighing. «Selene...»

«I didn't get you into trouble, did I?», she asked worried, stretching back towards him in an obvious gesture, tempted to place the palms of her hands on the man's close knees. «That is, I mean... I haven't compromised any of your relationships with them, perhaps preserved for work or convenience, have I?», the girl murmured. «I didn't mean it, and I'm sorry if perhaps I have caused you any problems.»

Jensen took a long look at her, shaking his head again and bowing his face to her fingers, the body language of the young woman who gave him so much information that he didn't really need to investigate how she felt.

«Selene, I don’t care about maintaining relationships with those people.» He came back to stare at her after a moment, hesitant. «I'll make sure that Botkoveli understands that it's not appropriate to have me as an enemy.»

Artair's niece found herself barely blushing, inhaling and exhaling deeply once, before lowering her face in an undecided nod, her hands still tight in a grip between her legs.

The man observed her reaction, still finding the ease with which he could perceive her physical responses, her cheeks reddened and her lower lip nibbled with tender uncertainty. The pressure of her knees against the mechanical ones of the man came to him muffled and not very stable, but he could feel it stronger probably because it was deliberately amplified.

Adam sighed once again, attracting her attention.

«You did the right thing, by the way. Impulsive and stubborn as I always seem to guess, but you did the right thing.» He leaned slightly towards her, trying to appear relaxed again. «But next time don't let your instincts alone guide you, Selene.»

The ex-SWAT kept the following words to himself, silent and all too personal.

If he had returned to Prague and discovered that something had happened to Selene, whatever it was, he wouldn't have hesitated a single moment to go to the lair of the Dvalis, or whoever had hurt her, to take justice for himself. He wouldn't have hesitated to get blood on his hands.

 _Christ_ , the simple idea of returning to Prague and imagining it without Artair's niece created a lump in his throat.

Almost naively he had thought that time spent away from her would reduce that inexplicable connection and that exhausting need for closeness, but instead, he felt considerably more engulfed in that situation and much more frustrated.

He didn't want to give more weight to the desire he felt while he was busy with the Interpol mission, the harassing thought of contacting her, even if only by a simple message, or contacting BlueDevil to consider himself more controlling of his actions. Actually, the fact that he had finally managed not to give in let him believe that he had put everything aside, the empathy, the pleasure of having the girl so close to him on so many occasions, the way she had talked to him about herself and him, because somehow Selene had also been able to talk about Adam knowing him barely — a clear demonstration of how she had an innate _perfection_ for understanding others.

He had only put everything aside, he had forced himself to put it all aside, but suddenly, just then, he realized that he was terribly sorry to have done so.

The girl mistook his frown for a grimace of annoyance, because she too bent slightly forward, trying to look him in the eyes, finally moving one hand over his right one, rested again on his artificial leg. The contact made him tremble, awakening from his pondering, the sensors on the back of the hand that gave him information about the warmth and softness of the female palm.

The man felt the impulse to cover Selene's fingers with his own, moving the other arm, but he simply raised on his back, stiffening, a quick glance at Řehoř, Hélèn and the children before returning to the girl.

«I'd better go now. I should get home to complete some work.»

Selene moved her fingers with which she had touched him, nodding faintly, wondering if the contact had bothered him: that sudden change of attitude made her stiff like she was burned and she called herself stupid for having made her disappointment so obvious.

«Yes, I guess.»

She paused, staring at him for a moment before taking a look around, trying to see how close all the others were.

Leveraging her hands to move forward, she brought the back of her knees just above those of the agent, approaching to embrace him in a calculated but equally imprecise gesture, much shyer than the exuberant grip she had reserved for him when he had arrived a couple of hours earlier.

Adam hesitated just a moment before answering, initially doubtful about the approach of that awkward movement, only to discover with immense amazement that the young woman was practically saying goodbye to him in a similar way as she had done before lunch.

He wrapped his arms around her back and lifted her to sit directly astride his thighs. Selene's surprised verse made him smile, as opposed to the heat that furiously tried to overflow at every point where their bodies were in contact.

 _Jesus_ , that position was so absurd that it was most typical of two horny teenagers, but the man was starting to be more and more aware of how that direct physicality was for BlueDevil's niece a quick and easy way to show her emotions without needing to talk or explain herself.

It must have been more natural for her to let herself go with gestures or actions to express her feelings, and in the end, he often acted in the same way, even if with time he had understood and appreciated how much the weight and meaning of words spoken with sincerity took on renewed importance both in those who listened and in those who allowed themselves the opportunity to expose them.

Selene seemed to relax in a very few moments, sensing her giving in to the same proud condescension that Adam had seen on her more than a month before: he couldn't look at her face, but it was as if he knew it, as if he could look at the girl's intimately calm expression, the same calm as when he had told her that he wouldn't leave her alone after listening to her story in that abandoned building on the outskirts of Prague.

He _knew_ that the young woman was amazed by that spontaneous closeness to which the man had once again surrendered but, despite that bizarre unknown that was surely hovering in her mind, she wasn't backing down. And it was something incredible, something that had made him equally willing to give her reason to react in such a gentle and pure way.

It was at that moment, however, that someone who passed close by, on the footpath, didn't simply continue in silence on their way. « _Yuck_! Slutty aug-fucker!»

Jensen stiffened, the pleasure of that hug broken hatefully by the comment just heard from both. He lifted his head and moved away just enough to watch a man walk away with rapid pace, with that typical walk of some coward who decided to take the easy way — throw the metaphorical rock and hide his hand.

«What did you just say, you piece of shit?!»

Selene blocked him, taking his face in her hands with extreme shyness, as if absurdly afraid of bothering him, her blue eyes filled with a silent request.

«Hey, he's not worth it.»

The ex-SWAT held his fingers on her back in a barely hinted grip, suddenly too focused on the pressure of her fingertips on his cheeks and the closeness of Artair's niece's relaxed face. Watching her from that distance had the power to almost completely erase the primordial burst of anger he had felt.

«No», he did with a tone not entirely firm, clearing his voice immediately afterward. «I am accustomed to hearing some things said to me, but it makes no sense for them to say it to you.»

The young woman smiled at him, a clear look of understanding.

«Adam, it was just an idiot. And in any case, we both know he wasn't telling the truth», she added, taking only a quick moment before winked at him and anticipating the rest of her words. «Not yet, at least. »

The agent silenced himself instantly, staring at her in shock.

He couldn't believe that she had really made such a joke, not to him, not after what they had risked _living_ a month before: Selene seemed terribly intent on joking allusively even about that latent tension, that desire that he had choked with all his might the night before the departure.

The young woman burst out laughing, giving free rein to her amusement and remaining still close to him yet in a faint swaying of the body, gradually slipping away from his legs to return to the bench, finally taking one hand to her abdomen and the other to her lips.

«Oh God, does it really take so little to embarrass you, _big boy_?», she addressed him, emulating what her musical partner had called him before lunch.

Jensen tried to regain a minimum of composure, shaking his head in a nod and clearing his voice again. «You are shameless...»

The girl looked at him with a raised eyebrow and the corner of her corresponding lips raised in a twisted smile.

«Tell me something I don't know», she replied as she tilted her face as she saw him move away from the seat he had been sitting on, crossing her legs in front of her in an amused gesture. «Hey, if you feel like it, why don't you come with Vaclav tonight to watch a movie at my place? At least when you go away together, I'll be calmer for his return to Překážka.»

Adam stared at her in turn, definitely surprised by the proposal: although she openly showed a calm and serene expression, he could be sure that her request had something to do with the situation of the Dvalis. _Damn_ , she was terribly tender when she was trying to hide her concern and apprehension for someone she cared about.

«Are you sure? Isn't this something you do among yourselves?»

«Absolutely not», she replied, denying imperceptibly. «I had also invited my uncle, but he doesn't like the movies we usually watch.»

«That can be a problem for me as well», added the man, a raised lip angle to make fun of her. «I'll let you know before dinner, okay?»

Selene nodded to him, smiling as she swung slightly on her crossed legs in front of him, in that playful and caring attitude.

«Don't consider the invitation binding, Jensen, but let me know anyway. Just to know if you will both stand me up», she provoked him, giggling.

The agent twirled his gaze in a fake exasperated nod, reactivating his shields after taking one last long look at her, and delaying his return home for only another instant to ask the young lady to say goodbye to the others.

The girl watched him move away, a deep breath to ripple her lips and mind finally more at peace.

She knew she was lying to herself, because she was suddenly aware of how much she had replaced the fear of not seeing him return with the same uncertainty she had felt a month earlier. The uncertainty that she had deepened and understood during that day when she had faced the Dvalis: the feeling of empty loneliness, the sadness felt during Adam's absence was still there, as if she was suddenly missing so much more of him.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Selene was finishing washing dishes when her vu-phone started ringing on the central counter behind her, in the kitchen area of the apartment.

She mumbled an expletive between her lips, snorting at the incredible timing of whoever was contacting her at that moment. With her hands still wet, she took her phone on the shelf, answering Koller's call.

«Hey, Vaclav, are you already here?», she asked, the cheerful but legitimately dubious tone.

Usually, the doctor had started knocking with an always different tune when he came to her place for the movie night.

« _Uh, not really. I'm home._ »The boy took an exhaustive break, already causing a primordial disappointment in the young girl. « _I have company here, at my place._ »

Selene puffed slightly, at the same time piqued by that sudden change of plans and intrigued by what she had just heard. «Some guy I know? Or a girl?»

« _I_ _don't think so, but it's a "she"_ », chuckled the doctor, amused by the tone perceived by the friend. « _Come on, you're going to have fun tonight, aren't you?_ »

The young woman rolled her eyes, aware however that the other could obviously not see her. «No, Vaclav. I don't think Adam will come over when I tell him it will just be me and him.»

The ex-SWAT had confirmed his presence around seven in the afternoon, much to the surprise of Artair's niece, if she had to be honest.

«Couldn't you have told me that before?»

She listened to the boy laugh out loud, imagining his amused expression and that mischievous frown she had become accustomed to.

« _It was a bit organized at the last minute, and in this regard, I really have to go_ », he said, suggesting certain haste in concluding the call. « _And anyway, you don't tell him anything and you'll see that Jensen will come to you anyway._ »

Selene sighed weakly, shaking her head, absolutely sure that she would spend that Sunday night at home alone and bored. «It doesn't seem like the right thing to do. See you tomorrow at work.»

« _If you want, I'll give you half a day off_ », Vaclav advanced, provoking a legitimate curiosity for that sudden proposal. « _You may need it to recover after whatever you and Adam will do..._ »

The young woman hung up on him, a veil of redness that colored her cheeks, accompanied by a quick giggle: Koller had got into the habit of teasing her for her relationship with Jensen, not because she had told him who knows what details of their chats and their moments together, but simply by intuition.

In all honesty, she hoped that was a behavior that Vaclav intended to expose only with her, because she suspected that if the ex-SWAT had heard such comments from the doctor, he wouldn't have been at all enthusiastic about it. And Selene knew that somehow Jensen would _blame_ her for the brazen attitude of the Time Machine owner.

After a quick sigh, she searched the vu-phone contacts for the frequency of the agent and started the call.

« _Selene?_ », replied the man at the first ring, the tone surprised.

Though slightly distorted by the communication and certain that he wasn't even opening his mouth to answer her, using the subvocal technology of infolink, she felt subtly overwhelmed by the familiarity she felt in recognizing his voice.

«Hey, Adam. Change of plan», she greeted him, hoping not to have disturbed him anyway. «Koller can't come anymore, so if you want, we can cancel the movie night at my place.»

« _Uhm»_ , was Jensen's only answer, dropping a long silence in the conversation.

Selene wrinkled her eyebrows, a grimace barely hinted at as she moved a few steps into the living area of her apartment.

«You're already here, aren't you?», she asked with that perfect mix that oscillated between resignation and mortification, biting her lower lip.

« _Overlook the landing_ », he suggested, the sound of a brief laugh that accompanied his words.

Artair's niece reached the front door with rapid stride, opening it with her vu-phone still close to her ear, first looking in front of her and then in the direction of the stairs down.

Adam was there, on the middle level, his face lifted upwards, towards her, and the shields already deactivated. With the usual coat almost completely covering his figure, Selene could identify other dark clothing underneath it, a typical _signature_ of the tastes of the ex-SWAT.

She glanced at the device, noticing the screen turning off after he must surely have interrupted the call, lowering her hands along her hips in an uncertain gesture.

«I'm sorry», she began as the agent resumed climbing the steps, finding herself tilting her head upward to follow the rising of his _alien_ eyes. «Koller warned me only now.»

«So what?», he continued with a sly smile on his lips when he stood in front of the girl. «Don't you want to watch a movie with me?»

The young woman raised her head, unprepared for that attitude. She didn't want to hazard a guess, or take a chance, but was Jensen flirting with her?

«Of course, I want it», she answered promptly.

She moved a couple of steps backward, turning around and bumping into the not-fully-open door with her shoulder, bizarrely aware that she hadn't calculated the distance between her and the entrance well.

«Shit ...», she blurted out in a whisper.

The man followed her into the apartment, sneering at the slight palpable nervousness that BlueDevil's niece emanated: being aware of her physical reactions left him once again amazed, but fantastically amused. The fact that she was a little in awe made him realize that the idea of spending the evening just the two of them alone hadn’t been considered before.

This gave him something to think about anyway. Perhaps Selene thought it would bother him to spend those few hours with her in her home. The last time he had been there, the young woman had asked him to have sex: maybe she thought that situation might trouble him, make him uncomfortable; maybe she was worried about how he might feel about returning with his mind to that very event.

The girl showed a slight embarrassment that seemed to have other connotations. His intuition suggested that there was certainly something else, but despite the weak _tension_ hewas experiencing with more certainty at the real prospect of spending time alone with Artair's niece, he found that behavior tender and pleasant, a shyness that was incredible to see in her.

The man closed the door behind him, getting rid of his coat and leaving it on one of the chairs near the table. He took a few moments to observe Selene, lingering not without a hint of _interest_ on her home clothes: she was wearing comfortable clothes, black sweatpants that outlined her buttocks with too much precision and a white jersey with a round neckline that suggested the presence of a sports bra under it, at her feet the inevitable cloth slippers; her purple hair was tied in a loose bun, a pair of locks escaping the elastic that fell around her face.

The heating was on and made the room much more comfortable than the cold outside, but Adam knew that the redness on his host’s cheeks wasn't a consequence of the temperature in the apartment.

«Make yourself at home», she did, returning to the sink. «I have to finish washing dishes, give me five minutes. There are drinks in the fridge. Or food.»

The ex-SWAT moved along with the girl, leaning for a moment on the nearby cabinet with his hip. He wasn't wearing the same clothes as the lunch, but had opted as always for black, winter clothes, even though he didn't need to cover his arms, exposing his carbon limbs without any problems.

«Food?», he questioned her, looking for her blue eyes. «Something from the lunch?», he added with a hint of hope to ripple his voice.

Selene smiled, her fingers engaged in the sink bowl with a sponge in one hand and a kitchen utensil in the other. «Did my lasagna, _by any chance_ , make an impression?»

Jensen, in turn, raised a corner of his lips, amused. «Are you gloating? Your ego doesn't need to be magnified any further, it's a very insidious risk.»

He listened to her laugh out loud, observing her calm movements while rinsing a ladle and then seeing her get up on her toes to put the object in the upper cupboard.

Adam said nothing else, remaining silent for a moment as he followed her actions with intimate pleasure: he was able to observe without problems the muscles of her back and legs stretching and contracting — and halfway between the two parts of the female physique, the round buttocks even more highlighted by the tight-fitting overalls.

 _Christ_ , he could also keep repeating how right had been the decision not to give in, not to give himself what he had wanted, to preserve Artair's niece from obvious consequences that would irreparably change their relationship, but since he had touched her before leaving for the mission with the TF29, since he had dreamed of her, Selene's body had crowded his thoughts even more.

That the young woman had even bothered to embrace him without hesitation that same day acerbated the sensation of feeling her pressing against him, warm, soft, tender, sweet.

_What will your skin taste like? What will your mouth taste like?_

The girl glanced at him as she resumed washing the last cutlery, tilting her face towards him, intrigued by that sudden silence. «What is it?»

The man collected himself, shaking his head in disguising the need to swallow and clear his voice. «Nothing. I was thoughtful.»

She looked at him again for a moment, a little doubtful for that vague answer, only a very first flake of uncertainty at the idea of asking him anything else.

«What were you thinking about?», she continued, trying to give the question a note of lightness and not real insistence.

Adam let slip a small smile, a raised lip corner. He turned to the rest of the room, leaning better against the sideboard with his buttocks and carrying his palms to the sides of his hips, crossing his legs in front of him.

It was bizarre to have to _lie to_ her, move the conversation to a completely different topic.

«Do you know if your uncle has plans for tomorrow night?»

Selene rests the dripping dishes in the special compartment, drying her hands on a cloth hanging inside a door of the upper cabinet. She turned around to look at the ex-SWAT, surprised by the request.

«Tomorrow? For the Eve?», she questioned him, incredulous. «Are you going to invite Artair for the Eve? I don't think he _barks at that tree_ , but I can try to investigate.»

Jensen lifted his head as he let himself go for a genuine laugh, denying energetically for that brazen response and then turning his face in the direction of the girl to look at her.

«Actually, I will need his IT skills for a task assigned to me by the Collective. Something to do here in Prague.»

The young woman was hardly astonished by those words, even if immediately afterward she let slip a sulky grimace. «Already at work? Not even time to be home?»

The agent squeezed his shoulders, nodding. «Certain situations don't give you many vacations, Selene», he said. «The fact that they chose Christmas Eve is to make things easier for me. You know, fewer guards in the place I have to go, and more likely to work badly.»

The girl listened to him attentively, intrigued, although she couldn't hide her serious apprehension in the straight line of her lips. «Do you have to infiltrate somewhere? Where?»

Adam looked at her for a long time, in silence, the relaxed expression, still that little smile that betrayed him mercilessly. He had missed her, so kind in taking an interest in him, so spontaneous.

«Ah-ah», he warned her anyway, raising a carbon finger and denying only with it. «If you are thinking of coming with me, you will be disappointed. I'm just mentioning the matter because I have to ask Artair to be my long-distance guide and, since it's a special day, I'm sorry if maybe you were planning to spend it together to celebrate.»

Selene hadn't really considered whether Jensen's new _mission_ coincided with the beginning of the Christmas holidays. In all sincerity, she rediscovered herself completely disinterested in the date, totally unable to stop thinking and imagining what he was supposed to do. She shook her face, _stunned_ by that marasmus of sensations experienced during a simple Sunday evening.

«We haven't organized anything. Actually, we were supposed to discuss it today, but my uncle didn't propose anything.» She hesitated for a moment, her natural color eyebrows frowned. «So, he hasn't been informed yet?»

«Not really», replied Jensen. «I think he has already received all the information from the Collective, but he probably thought it wasn't appropriate to talk about it while we were together at the park. Surely tomorrow we will discuss it as soon as possible.»

He stared at her again for a moment, tilting his face in her direction in a sympathetic gesture.

«And I point out again that you won't come with me.»

Selene puffed slightly, crossing her arms to her chest with little conviction.

«But Adam...», she began, the tone just a little lower.

«No, no "but Adam"», he calmly restrained her, still that _traitorous_ smile on his lips. «It’s an assignment from the Collective. I’m more than enough. And then, with Artair's technical support, everything will be fine.»

The girl nodded imperceptibly after a few seconds of silence, accompanying the nod with a slight doubtful laugh, a clear demonstration of how unenthusiastic she was about that decision.

«Anyway, it's a step forward», commented the young lady.

«What?», he asked, intrigued by the comment.

He tried with all his strength to ignore how much he wanted to dwell on the tender pout that Selene was showing at that moment. Adorable and absurdly _childish_ , but it was in an adult, mature way.

«That you practically told me that you are part of the Juggernaut Collective», she replied with a broad smile of _victory_.

She moved in front of her guest to sit with a small leap on the central island of the kitchen area.

The ex-SWAT raised his head for a moment, raising an eyebrow in a somewhat exasperated manner. «You had already figured it out for yourself.»

Selene giggled again, biting her lower lip as she tilted slightly forward, her hands resting on the sides of her thighs on the shelf.

Adam inhaled for a moment, trying not to look at the hacker's niece directly into the neckline of the jersey that had lowered a little, allowing the vision of the initial breast crease. At that moment it was difficult to identify in that pose simple relaxed movements or renewed attempts at initiative.

«So...», she said, the tone of voice a little lower and playful. «Do you have any suggestions on how to start the evening?»

The man was incredibly able to hold back the clear answer that his expression wanted to show: he didn't want to give in to the idea of indulging that flirt, even if he found it more stimulating than expected, but something in her attitude gave him a certainty that he had tried to recover from even before leaving for the mission with the TF29.

The girl had returned to behaving exactly as she did at the beginning of their relationship: brazen, cheeky, naughty, genuinely spontaneous and friendly. She had put aside the memory of that night of weakness, the necessity of an illusory moment, understanding probably how much more appropriate it was to opt for that simple quiet.

Adam crossed his arms to his chest, still bending an elbow to carry a couple of fingers on his bearded chin.

«You really don't feel like watching a movie with me, huh?», he asked, one corner of his lips raised.

«Yes, later», she asserted, swinging her back a little bit in a rather unequivocal nod. «I meant, however, that if you are hungry, I can heat a portion of lasagna for you. Or, if you have already eaten, I can also offer you a slice of chocolate cake from today's birthday.»

The man tilted his face forward to giggle quietly, finally taking a look at the young woman with an eyebrow raised in an amused nod.

«If this is your attempt to make my stay here with you longer, you'll have to try a little harder», said the man in a blatantly joking tone.

Selene waited a second before answering, bringing her hands a little further back and then tilting her torso in the same way to support herself, overlapping one leg over the other in a mellifluous and light gesture.

«Is this a _chaperone_ suggestion or an invitation to do something more _interesting_?»

Jensen bent his head to the side, staring at her again for a long moment in silence.

Before the grafts, he wouldn't have hesitated even further, even though Selene was really young to make that decision lightly.

Before the augmentations he could remember some sporadic not very important affair, sexual intercourse started almost like that, with a girl he just met who made no secret of the same desire to fuck that he felt — before he started working at Sarif Industries, before seeing Megan Reed again at least five days a week.

In the six months leading up to the Tyrants' attack, Adam hadn't been able to have sex with other women, aware that he had his ex again on his mind. And after the grafts, his abstinence had become even stronger.

To look at Selene so careless of the consequences of provoking him in that way, to see her playing allusively with her fingertips on the closest edge of the cupboard, to follow the light imaginary circle she drew with her leg crossed, the slipper barely held by her fingertips, the possibility of seeing small portions of the skin of her foot, sinuous and feminine, was all so detailed and sincere that Adam couldn't stop staring at her, and to find in some corner of his mind the same questions he had asked himself before. Just a little more agonizing.

_What will your breasts taste like? What will your sex taste like?_

He watched her come down from the cabinet and approach quietly, a primordial and rapid sense of alarm at the idea that she could take the initiative, but she just touched him with one hand on his carbon arm, pure _electricity_ tickling to feel her natural fingertips sliding on the sensors, and then moved that same hand on the door of the fridge to open it.

«Would you like something to drink, while we choose the movie?», she made, smiling without watching him.

Jensen had to breathe in a little more deeply again before speaking. The intentional contact of the girl's fingers, along with what he had _enjoyed_ before, had given him the gift of _that_ feeling, the knowledge that it had really been too long, _too_ long since anyone had caressed him like that.

«I'm good», he replied, the tone a little more rough than normal.

The young woman turned to look at him, closing the refrigerator as she returned to her correct height after bending down to browse shamelessly through the drinks on the shelf.

«Then, we can choose what to watch. Any preference?», she asked with an innocent smile.

_Do you really want to play this game, Selene?_

«What do you propose?», Adam asked, turning completely towards her, but returning to lean with his side to the nearby cabinet, his arms still crossed in a safe gesture.

«Uhm, I don't know», she began by lifting her head slightly, her blue eyes lit up with hidden enthusiasm. «Maybe instead of a movie, we can opt for something more instructive. A documentary about animals and nighttime activities, for example.»

The agent shook his head, amused, surprised, _worried_. He let himself go with a low, throat laugh and realized for the first time since he had known her that Selene had already made him laugh so many times that he had lost count.

It had been a lifetime since he felt so willing to let slip something so pleasant as a sincere and regenerating laugh. That sudden well-being led him to respond with the same allusive tone, even though a very large part of himself kept telling him that he shouldn't support in any way her impetuous attempts to flirt with him.

«I'm not the documentary type, some things I prefer to learn in person, live.»

_Easy, Jensen, or you'll send yourself and your common sense to hell in a very hypocritical way._

Selene bit her lower lip to hold back the wide smile that lit up her face, nodding with that renewed condescension.

«A horror, then», she proposed, lifting her face very slightly towards her guest.

She gave him the back to move in the direction of the bookcase and the shelf full of digital collections without waiting for the ex-SWAT to follow her.

«How about the movie that gave me the code for my apartment? I've already watched it many times, but I'm happy to watch it again.»

She paused to take the plastic-coated box, showing the label to the man who had reached her in the meantime, a rather unusual moment of hesitation, as if she was undecided whether to say the rest or not.

«It was one of my father's favorite movies, it was he who passed on to me his passion for horror movies.»

She just smiled, turning the object around between her fingers and finally staring at the man from that small distance, waiting for his answer.

Adam understood that intimate truth exactly at that moment.

If there was anything he would always have to deal with, it was that sudden melancholy and sadness that occasionally peeped out of the girl's expressions. It was a quick glance, a pulled smile, a hand that trembled, a breath that broke faintly, shoulders that lost composure, back that stiffened, forehead furrowed by a light line, a jaw that tightened in a nod that tried to hide the grimace of agony that threatened to betray her completely.

When the agent realized all this, he finally had to face himself, face the incredible impulse to stop her from whatever it was she was doing, hold her close and let her sink her face against his chest. Hug her and caress her weakly between her shoulder blades. Press his lips between her hair. Telling her that everything was fine.

Why did he feel so protective of Selene?

The girl observed him, her gaze questioning and uncertain because of that umpteenth silence. «If you don't feel like it, we can choose something else.»

The man denied with his head, pointing with a nod of his hand to the plasticized box. «No, that's all right. What's the plot?»

Artair's niece smiled radiantly at him, passing him to retrieve the remote control from the couch, and returning to the wall to insert the DVD into the side compartment of the TV, and then approaching the couch again.

«It’s the story of a man, a writer, who visits hotels presumably haunted by ghosts and then tells his experiences in the books he writes. Skeptical, cynical, disillusioned, he finally finds a place, a hotel room in New York, _1408_ in fact, where he is forced to face all his fears and inner demons.»

Before sitting down, she turned off the central lights in the room, leaving only those above the hob on. Once she took her seat in the center of the sofa, Adam followed her, sitting on the side closest to the bathroom door, to the left of the young woman. He nodded imperceptibly as he listened to the brief synopsis, finding the plot rather common and simple, but kept his opinion to himself.

The girl left the remote control between them, freeing herself from her slippers, exposing her bare feet, the tops of both tattooed by a Chinese dragon on the left and a butterfly on the right. She bent one leg against her belly and the other slipped on the fabric touching with her knee the nearest thigh of the ex-SWAT.

Adam considered for a single moment whether to take a more relaxed pose, finally sliding forward slightly with his hips and raising one hand on the back of the sofa. One could imagine that he would have the intention of surrounding the young woman's shoulders with his arm, but that wasn't what he was thinking.

As the movie began to show the first scenes, Selene gave him a calm look, smiling at him.

«If you want, you can take off your shoes and make yourself more comfortable too. I already told you that you can make yourself at home.»

Jensen chuckled, bowing his face. «If I really made myself at home, I'd be shirtless and in sweatpants by now.»

The girl smiled again, a little more maliciously, giving him a sly look. «For the sweatpants, I don't think I can help you, but you shirtless, I vote in favor.»

The man shook his head, twirling his gaze, his hand on the back of the backrest, which he moved just to prick Artair's niece on the back of the neck in a fake authoritarian gesture, taking extreme care not to apply too much pressure and not to get any hair caught between the dorsal sections of the mechanical fingers.

«No talking while the movie is on», he said, absurdly joking.

She giggled again a moment before she went back to watch the movie. Adam lost a few more seconds observing instead the reverberation of the frontal light on her expression, the sinuous profile of the female face illuminated by more or less intense flashes coming directly from the device on the wall, and the locks of purple hair that tickled her cheeks, taking on a more bluish shade. And the tattoo of the seahorse, a fish that man understood would always associate with her.

He sighed faintly before focusing on the film, the awareness that it had been a lifetime since he had had a moment like that with anyone.

Gratitude exploded sweetly in his chest, the certainty that Selene was allowing him to feel more human again.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A night's rest is all Adam needs. And it is there that the cruelest of feelings matures.

[No rest for the wicked](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-4eUGOBzCw)

Adam had first felt the pressure of Selene's head on the mechanical arm lifted on the backrest after about thirty minutes of the movie. He found her with her head slightly raised and her eyes closed, her lips barely opened in a slow, steady breath, her hands softly resting on her legs both bent to one side, her right knee a little more exposed.

After a sudden sound from the television, the young woman roused herself, casting a glance first at the man and then returning to the movie in a slightly straighter position in an attempt not to be caught sleepy again, undoing her bun to let her hair fall back on the right side.

Jensen had looked away before she could notice his amused expression, trying not to burst out laughing at what he had just seen. When he sensed the weight of the girl's head on his arm after another fifteen minutes or so, the ex-SWAT stared at her again, finding her noticeably dozier and with her face tilted upward more, her mouth a little more open.

The scene made him chuckle to himself, but he decided to wake her up by tickling the back of her neck with his closer fingers.

«Selene, we might want to stop the movie.»

She moved in place, shaking her head. «What? No, no, I just closed my eyes for a moment.»

The agent smiled at that _lie_ , staring at her tenderly. «How come you're so sleepy?»

Artair’s niece stretched weakly, stretching her legs past the couch and raising her arms toward the ceiling.

«I woke up early this morning to cook, and Nela and her friends made me pretty tired.» She waved a hand in a careless nod, returning to watching the movie. «But I actually haven't slept very well these days. I had a couple of thoughts on my mind.»

Adam decided not to investigate further, mainly because a part of him, perhaps conceited, or perhaps needing to feel more human sensations again, thought that her troubled rest was a direct result of him being away, but rationally he knew that it must be about the Dvalis issue.

Thinking about that _big family_ brought back to his mouth a vague bitter taste and a burning impulse of anger to his mind. When he had left the city park in the early afternoon, also because of the offensive comment he had heard while he had embraced the girl, he had let himself be overwhelmed by a primordial feeling of anger.

He hadn’t immediately returned home. He had gotten off at the Pilgrim Station stop and made his way to the Red Light district, even though it was officially closed — but not for him and his abilities.

He had visited Otar Botkoveli in his private room at the Theater, undoubtedly taking him by surprise, and reminded him how unfortunate it could be to have him as an enemy. Verbally, with simple and direct words, but he had made no secret of his intentions if in a hypothetical future something happened to Vaclav and Selene.

He hadn’t said anything to her because he knew she would feel guilty, perhaps even more worried, for that reason he had preferred to keep silent about his _courtesy_ visit to the mafia boss.

He was brought back to the present, to the movie he wasn't really paying attention to, when for the third time the young woman abandoned her head against the backrest. The ex-SWAT sighed without even looking at her, turning towards her only after a few seconds of thoughtful ponderation, the impulse to act without shirking the astonishment and wonder of seeing her in that state of complete relaxation. With his raised arm he reached her shoulders and guided her slowly towards him, letting her slide against him.

She perked up for a moment, surprised, and on the verge of moving, her hands immediately stretched forward in a clumsy gesture. «What...?»

«Shhh. Don't worry», he interrupted her, turning slightly to allow her to find a more comfortable position.

Finding herself inexplicably leaning against her guest's side made her as alert and attentive as if she were about to face some absurdity within seconds. After all, Adam's kindness was definitely _absurd_ , but not at all new.

It was that bizarre sense of familiarity that made her relent, abandon all feeble reticence. _That_ , and his scent, the memory of when he had helped her after the _mission_ in Hradec Králové, a tender bliss she didn't think she would feel again.

Sleep instantly pervaded her, making her weight a little more stable pressure on his side.

Jensen couldn't watch the rest of the movie. He told himself it was because of the banal scenes and some narrative choices that made the interpretation of the protagonist grotesquely ridiculous, but the truth was that he couldn't ignore Selene's hands, the right one resting on his chest with her palm and the left one resting on the back lower, almost on his pelvis. He couldn't ignore the sound of her breathing and the slight tickle she made on his neck from time to time. He couldn't ignore the soft murmurs that came in response to some louder noise from the television, a clear sign of annoyance at the interruption of her already precarious rest.

He retrieved the remote control and turned the volume down quite a bit, gradually, until the credits began and he found himself much more relaxed toward the armrest he'd had next to him before and which at that moment instead supported his back. With a deep breath, he hesitantly brought his hand free of her weight to a couple of strands of purple hair that covered her face, moving them toward her ear.

Even though he knew he had no right to touch her further, he found himself unable not to, carefully and delicately running his two fingertips from her temple, to her cheekbone, to her cheek, coming within a few inches of the corner of her newly opened mouth. The touch probably tickled her, making her smile faintly as she pressed herself against him.

It was _heartbreaking_ to remember when it had been the last time he'd had the chance to hold someone, a girl, close like that. He didn't want to think about Megan Reed again, for that evening he had given her far too much of his time as well — a pure surge of selfish resentment, more like a wistful sadness that still claimed him every now and then if his mind returned to the memory of his ex.

Selene was there, in his arms. As extremely predisposed as he had felt to welcome those hours of rejuvenating humanity after a month spent in a tense and dangerous situation, he knew he had to keep in mind an important detail of his _relationship_ with her.

He'd told himself that letting her get so close and getting so close in turn had been a mistake, but at the same time, he'd felt regret in realizing that he'd deliberately pushed aside the empathy and incredible chemistry he felt for her.

It was a vicious cycle he knew and, in some ways, related to the same desire he had experienced when he had worked for David Sarif. And it was unnerving to realize that certain flaws in his personality continued to _bother_ him, leading him to wonder if he would ever be able to rid himself of those lingering _temper weaknesses_.

All that ponderation led him to inhale softly on the girl's forehead, tickling her again but with his breath.

He should have left, forced himself to wake her up completely and get up, but, despite that certainty, he stayed a few more minutes watching the young woman until the television turned itself off, probably set to energy-saving when not in use. That part of the room was enveloped in a pleasant dimness, relaxing him more along with everything else, the built-up tiredness that fell on him like a boulder.

The mission with TF29 hadn’t been complicated or difficult, but it had been challenging in several other ways. He and MacReady's team had been called upon to back up a branch of the same agency in Morocco, but his skills had been used deliberately one hundred percent so as not to risk complications in any case. When he'd set foot back in his home, during the night between Saturday and Sunday, he'd been tempted to go to the Crannóg to see if it was open, but had decided otherwise.

He didn't know exactly when he got rid of his shoes and lifted his legs on the couch, trying to get down a little so he could rest his head on the armrest without disturbing her.

He wanted to take just a few more minutes, a few more moments of quiet before he left the warmth and scent of the apartment. Before he deprived himself of the warmth and scent of Selene — jasmine on her soft skin, a hint of cinnamon in her purple hair, perhaps the fragrance of chocolate cake on her lips, and that sweet trace on her neck.

In fact, he was pretty sure he'd simply thought it, imagined he'd really slipped off his boots, imagined he'd really settled in better over the cushions.

_Five more minutes, just five more minutes._

When he opened his eyes, he took a few moments to regroup his thoughts and recognize the surroundings illuminated by a gentle natural light.

Attempting to move, he realized he had his right arm behind Selene’s shoulders, almost wedged against the back of the couch, his corresponding hand resting on the side of Artair's niece and the other free and raised above his head in a relaxed gesture. His legs were fully extended as well, the awareness that his feet were uncovered the instant he moved his lower limbs and touched the opposite armrest, the sensors registering the texture of the upholstered fabric with less precision than those on the upper extremities.

Selene had been lying off to the side, her head propped up where the agent's shoulder and grafts alternated, her left hand between their bodies, slightly squeezed, while the other weakly tightened its grip on the man's shirt, at the level of his heart. Her left leg followed the length of the sofa, though it didn't quite reach the armrest, but her right was bent naturally at the knee and leaned very close to the ex-SWAT's groin.

Jensen swallowed a moment, activating the HUD to find out with a hint of anxiety what time it was. «Shit...»

He brought the only palm he could move to his face, squeezing his eyelids slightly between his thumb and forefinger, then running his carbon fingertips through his hair in a gesture that encompassed uncertainty and awe.

He had _collapsed_ inexorably, surrendering to the sense of familiarity he knew he shouldn't feel. There was nothing more _dangerous_ than realizing that, in fact, he had wanted to give in, _to allow_ himself a night of bliss, a rest away from solitude.

He had slept continuously for nearly seven hours, with no recollection of terrible dreams or nightmares, and woke up feeling quite rested — perhaps just a little sore in his lower back from being in the same position for so long, but the Sentinel System was easing the slight discomfort.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he perceived a slight change in the young woman's breathing, which moved imperceptibly for a second before inhaling more deeply and rubbing her face against him, almost under his arm. He heard her stretching lazily and puffing out uncertain, short, little mutterings that made him all too aware of the situation he was in.

He barely held back the urge to smile at those _noises_ — was Selene really that vocal even as soon as she woke up?

When the girl opened her eyes, she felt a little confused, because she didn't remember getting into bed and she didn't remember her pillows being that big and warm, but they definitely _had to_ be softer. She felt warmer than expected, but she knew that the heat was set to turn off around midnight and then turn back on around seven in the morning.

What time had she set her alarm? She had, hadn't she?

What she immediately recognized as a finger touched her exposed cheekbone, also complicit in the fact that she had instantly detected the human movement of the body on which she had fallen asleep.

It was inevitable to feel overwhelmed for a moment by a primal hint of dread, a slight feeling of worry that attached itself to the idea that she was barely awake, weak and vulnerable, but her olfactory memory gave her the power to subside as soon as she detected _his_ scent again.

She lifted herself slowly with an uncertain expression anyway, her purple hair ruffled to one side falling in voluminous waves and tickling her face and neck.

Finding out that she was practically leaning on Adam Jensen made her blush miserably.

He looked at her, the urge to bite his tongue to hide how fascinated he was by the sight of her sleepy face, messy hair and blue eyes alight with surprise and amazement. The blush on her cheeks as soon as she saw him gave him the last invisible pang in his tightly clenched stomach, the incredible _pain_ of realizing how much beauty there was in her youthful features.

Selene burst out laughing, hiding her face between the hand she could move and her guest's body. «What happened?»

The ex-SWAT barely held back the same laugh, finding himself almost infected by the hilarity the girl had found in that situation, intimately pleased that the young woman had allowed herself to make such a spontaneous and tender response.

Perhaps he could choose to ignore the sense of alarm and relax again?

«If you offer boring movies, it's normal to fall asleep», the man teased her, clearing his throat when he noticed he had his voice a little hoarser than expected.

«Hey...», she complained, lifting her head and resting her chin slowly on his chest, moving her hand under her face so as not to press directly on him. «Do you know what time it is? I can't remember where I left my vu-phone.»

Adam stared at her for a moment, slowly biting the inside of his bottom lip.

_Don't look at me like that, please. Don't look at me like that._

«It's about fifteen minutes to eight. In the morning, of course. And your vu-phone is on the center counter in the kitchen.»

Artair’s niece gave him an amused look for the last part of his answer, so typical of him in that punctuation, as if he couldn't avoid showing himself prepared and professional even in that context.

«Oh, that's good», she murmured, folding her face to rest her cheek on his chest again, but leaving her hand in the same spot. «I have to be at Vaclav's bookstore at nine, I thought it was already too late.»

When she leaned back on her chin again, she wasn’t afraid to look at him again.

«Will you have to go to the office today?»

The agent barely nodded, swallowing quickly and lifting his head slightly to avoid looking at Selene from that very short distance.

«Yes, just for a few hours, but I have to stop by my house first. And actually, I should also go to Koller's for a routine checkup, as well as having to call your uncle to get ready for tonight.»

«You can shower here if you want», Artair's niece offered, smiling at him without showing any hint of malice or double entendre.

She lowered her face a little to better rub herself against him, determined not to deprive herself of his closeness to imprint even better in her memory the scent of the man — she could recognize the aftershave of scotch pine, the shirt that smelled of fabric softener and that typical musky scent that must belong to his skin, in addition to that mechanical something coming from the augmented limb so close.

Jensen shook his head, unsure and worried, returning his free hand to his eyes, the same gesture he had made a few minutes earlier on his eyelids as soon as he had been awake.

«I still have to change my clothes, but...»

He hesitated for a moment, finally letting himself be guided by the need to free himself even for a few minutes from what he was feeling.

«Yes, I need a shower.»

_I need to get this feeling out of my head. I need to focus on something else._

Selene still kept the small smile on her lips, tilting her head to observe him for a few moments. Adam sighed weakly, her leg sliding upward a little more, moving away from _dangerous_ areas, but giving him the idea of how close she _really_ was to him.

The girl lifted herself on her left hand, levering up onto the couch, one last look at her guest followed by the total initiative to get past him by straddling him without a second thought.

«Okay, before you do, I have to go to the bathroom», she added in a rush.

She wouldn't have had any difficulty if he hadn't tried to move back to sit down, practically carrying her with him. The young woman burst out laughing, Adam's expression considerably funnier than expected.

«If you don't want me to get up, just say so.»

« _Christ_ , Selene», he blurted, pushing his carbon hands away in an obvious action, certain he shouldn't touch her — not because she didn't want to, it was definitely blatant that she didn't mind being touched by Jensen.

He was tempted to bend one leg to keep her body from going further back, but lost time in pondering whether to actually act or stay put. In the way of ducking to regain the balance needed to get past the agent, she bumped her buttocks into his groin, causing him to arch weakly as he grabbed her wrists and pulled her forward.

She burst out laughing again, unable to keep herself upright and stretching just a little on his abdomen, her knee near the edge of the couch that risked to slide badly over the cushion.

«Be still! If I laugh, I can't move. I have to pee, you aren’t helping me, like this!»

The ex-SWAT couldn't hold back any longer in turn, chuckling as he relaxed the back of his head on the armrest and moved his fingers over her slender back, a slight caress hinted at.

When the hacker's niece applied a weak pressure on his chest to lift herself, her purple hair came down more voluminous and messier, and her body pressed back down on the man's groin.

Adam abandoned his head altogether on the couch, the image before him replaying another in his mind all too vivid and powerful to ignore completely. His carbon palms slid over the white jersey to barely tighten his grip on the feminine hips, in that latent indecision that suggested two options to him, to let her go or _not_ to let her go.

«Selene...», he murmured looking at her, perfectly aware that he couldn't prevent the hint of an erection from forming — in fact, his member was absolutely interested in following one choice.

«Yes?», she asked, her expression faux-innocent.

She began to slowly run her short nails over the fabric of his dark shirt, applying just the right amount of pressure, but feigning nonchalance.

«Move over, come on», Jensen replied more to try to convince himself.

He maintained eye contact and tried hard not to let anything show on his face, quite uselessly, to tell the truth, because it was his own body that betrayed him miserably.

The girl smiled, tilting her face a little to the side in an amused nod. «Sure, _boss_ , but I have just one question to bring to your attention.»

«Selene», he repeated, the tone of reproach quite obvious even though his gaze was unhappily just as hilarious.

She ignored him, biting her lip just before speaking. «Do you have a gun in some hidden pocket of your pants, or are you especially glad to see me?»

«Selene!», exclaimed Adam, incredulous — but at the same time not at all amazed that she didn't go to the trouble of letting him know she could feel the slight pressure of his erection.

He sat up abruptly, pushing her toward the rest of the sofa and hearing her laugh as she fell on her back.

The young woman had thought the man would just walk away, perhaps lock himself in the bathroom to shower, but instead, he reached her, bending over her. Jensen brought his carbon hands on her belly with the intent of pinching her on her jersey-covered abdomen.

She burst out laughing more loudly, fidgeting in an attempt to avoid and not avoid that pleasant _torture_. «Ah, no! Stop tickling!»

Adam continued undaunted, trying to pay attention to his movements, but paradoxically sure that, at least with her, he wouldn't unintentionally hurt her.

« _So_? Are you done being a bitch?»

«Never», Artair's niece said, still laughing, futilely trying to grab his mechanical wrists. «It's not my fault you're always so strai-Ahahah!»

Jensen increased the intensity of the tickling and in response the girl laughed even harder, moving uncontrollably, eventually turning on her side as she found herself placing a knee between herself and the agent. He shook her leg off quickly, pinning it for a moment before resuming pinching her.

Selene tilted her face back, laughing, her hair stuck under her shoulders and her exposed neck. The ex-SWAT gradually stopped, the sight of her arching in that way calling up other desires and other thoughts in his mind and his veins.

All he could do was stop that _game_ , the melancholy sadness resurfacing in his throat, the disappointing prospect that the whole _situation_ was a farce, a lie: he didn't deserve to touch the girl like that, he shouldn't have given in to seeking such a moment of humanity.

His host lowered her head slightly as she realized she was no longer being tickled, breathing deeply but with a smile still on her lips.

She saw the man remain motionless and understood that for him, something must be triggered again that would eventually drive him away. She could see it in his gaze, in his unspeakably distressed expression, and a large part of her felt torn by that vision.

She lifted a hand hesitantly, resting it on his cheek partly covered by his beard. «Adam...»

The touch made him quiver, tilting his face imperceptibly toward her small palm, the burning desire to linger there for an extremely long time. He flinched soon after in an imprecise snort, returning to sit on the couch with his head raised and leaned against the backrest, his carbon arms finding support on his thighs.

Selene stood up in turn, sitting up and folding one knee underneath herself, shaking a couple of strands of purple hair from her face.

«I'm sorry», she murmured.

Jensen gave her a long look, a nod of dissent accompanied by a brief, sad smile.

«No, you don't have anything to be sorry», he replied, returning to looking insistently ahead.

The young woman hesitated for a moment, swallowing and clutching her shoulders, her hands pinching the fabric of the sofa just beneath her in a clear motion of uncertainty.

«I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, Adam. I'm sorry if it bothered you that I...»

The ex-SWAT just sighed, interrupting her with a slow nod of his carbon hand, turning himself towards her in almost the same way; he lifted one knee on the couch in rotating his torso to face her with absolute willingness.

«You don't make me uncomfortable, Selene. You're not the one making me uncomfortable», the implied meaning of those last words gave her sureness that he was the one holding himself back, for a variety of reasons that the girl had already begun to understand a month earlier.

The agent shook his head weakly as he reinforced the next sentence, bowing his face slightly in a thoughtful gesture.

«I haven't carved out such moments for myself in quite some time now», he continued, his tone serious but his gaze kind. «It's just that there are things that I don't... That I don't think it's fair to let you deal with. About me, I mean. And I'm no longer used to living quietly through all this.»

He let a quick and bitter laugh escape, denying again, an action that confirmed how little he could bear that grievance inherent in his soul, a defense mechanism he had built to protect himself. Because he had been forced to preserve himself first from others, not from possibly dangerous situations.

«But please, don't stop acting the way you usually act around me, okay? You mustn't think it's your fault, you mustn't think I find your company unpleasant, because otherwise I wouldn't have even come here last night.»

Selene nodded in response, the sudden, intimate serenity of seeing and hearing Jensen expose himself a little, agreeing to tell her even if with primal doubt something that was part of him, part of his personality.

She rested her temple on the backrest, her arms outstretched to _hide_ her hands between her thighs now both shifted on the cushion, her knees folded, and then turned a glance to the man's lower limbs, the dark pants perfectly dressing that part of his body.

«I know you probably think I'm too young, but... You can talk to me, Adam, if you want to. You told me a while back that my scars can't shock you, because of what was done to your body. Well... I'm not so easily shocked, either, now. If you think I'm scared of your grafts, or I’m scared of you, you're sadly mistaken», she admitted candidly without a shadow of fear in her clear, bright blue gaze, and incredibly sincere. «So, if you tell me that I must maintain my usual behavior, I wonder if your legs are augmented as well», she added with a quiet smile on her lips, in that tender curiosity with which she simply wanted to relieve the tension she had sensed in him.

Jensen inhaled deeply, his chest and shoulders lifting at that gesture, the urge to fully show the relief of hearing those words countered by the need to have to be cautious, because giving in entirely to the desire to find someone to finally _talk_ to scared the hell out of him.

«Yes, up to the hips.»

_And I'm not even sure that what's left of me is really just the torso stripped of my natural limbs._

He stared at her again, barely moving a carbon hand over the portion of the couch between them, palm upward. Selene stared at him in surprise, a quick movement from his face to his end just before letting out an enthusiastic smile. She reached for his hand with hers, letting him hook a few of their fingers and quietly responding to his gentle grip.

«When we have a little more time, I'll tell you what happened to me», the ex-SWAT concluded, scrutinizing her expression.

Artair's niece collected herself, straightening her back and biting her lower lip at that new concession of trust. «You don't have to tell me anything, Adam. Don't feel pressured.»

The man turned a small smile on her again, watching her, the tightness in his chest loosening along with the tightness in his throat, and the carbon thumb tracing small circles on the backs of her feminine fingers.

«Maybe actually some of your impulsiveness is good for me, Selene. And trust me, I'm pretty surprised by it too.»

The girl nodded again, delighted to hear him say those words. She hesitated a moment, tightening her grip on the fingers the agent had intertwined so independently, looking at the beauty in the _contrast_ she could see between them.

She finally moved toward him, still on the couch, her face bent as she got closer for those few inches and then raised it at just the right moment, leaning just enough to let a kiss on his cheek, the one with the visible marks on the beginning of her beard. The hairs tickled her surprisingly, making her smile, but she lingered just a couple of seconds anyway as she pressed her lips to his skin.

When she flinched, she saw Adam with his mouth clamped in a straight line, his expression decidedly inscrutable.

«What?», she questioned him, a little doubtfully. «You told me to act like I usually do, and you just admitted that my impulsiveness is good for you.»

Jensen needed a very long moment of thoughtful silence so as not to risk throwing away the last bit of common sense he wanted to hold on to — because otherwise, he would have pushed her to lie down on the couch again, and not to tickle her.

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

«Yeah, sure», he murmured, clearing his throat. «I wonder why you take these kinds of requests literally, but when I tell you, for example, not to get into trouble, you just launch into danger like it's nothing.»

He was blatantly referring to the Dvalis issue, he desperately wanted to shift his attention to something else, to quickly forget the warmth of that kiss on his cheek.

The girl giggled openly, swaying on the couch.

«To annoy you, of course», she replied, finally getting up from the sofa and wearing her slippers. «I need the bathroom for a moment, I have to pee, but I'll leave it for your shower right away.»

Adam widened his eyes, subtly exasperated by the chatter that, on balance, he felt was a little too private to be overheard without imagining his host busy urinating.

«Thank you for the information. I definitely needed to know that.»

She moved to the nearby door, pulling it slightly aside before closing it to give him a sly smile and a mocking smirk, and tenderly sticking her tongue out accompanied by yet another wink.

Once alone, Jensen relaxed on the couch, looking up at the ceiling for a few minutes.

It was his fault, he knew very well that he shouldn't have given in so many times to the intimate desire to be _overwhelmed_ by her. She had made that closeness all too easy to attain, all too welcoming to reject, all too bewitching to ignore, but the fault was his alone, not Selene's. Pushing her away out of the blue would have hurt her, putting a proper distance between him and her would have made her wonder what she had done wrong to annoy him so much, he was sure of it. The mere thought of causing her that obvious turmoil made him furious with himself.

He allowed himself another few minutes of thoughtful ponderation under the jet of hot water in the girl's shower. Before leaving the bathroom, the young woman had prepared a towel for her guest on top of the washing machine and placed a suitable mat in front of the door of the shower-box; she had also remembered, Adam noted with a small smile, to leave the hairdryer and a toothbrush still wrapped in the purchase package within reach. Those cares, their obvious significance, rekindled that latent guilt in him again.

While the man was busy getting ready, Selene had turned on the coffee pot and texted Koller to inform him that she might be ten minutes late, taking as an excuse the fact that she hadn't set her alarm clock, which was true if she were to be totally honest. She didn't receive an immediate reply, a sign that the boy was still blissfully asleep — or else the doctor was simply waiting to discuss the events of the movie night in an all-too-gossipy manner.

When he returned to the living area, already dressed from head to toe, he walked quietly past the couch to join her. She poured coffee into two cups, handing one to the ex-SWAT.

«Would you like a piece of pie? I'm starving», she offered, approaching the refrigerator.

«Do you have time to eat something?», he asked doubtfully, sipping the hot drink.

She waved a hand in a relaxed gesture, nodding. «I texted Vaclav I'd be a little late. To make it up to him, I'm bringing him a big batch of lasagna for lunch.»

Jensen lifted a corner of his lips at that answer, nodding softly. «After what you've done for him, he shouldn't even be complaining about it.»

A brief pause led him to smile to himself, trying not to let her _look_ at him too much.

«You like to cook, huh? Do you have a habit of tempting people?»

Artair's niece chuckled, placing her cup on the nearby cabinet and retrieving from the fridge the dessert already portioned in a single tray, arranging the slices in two small plates taken from the cupboard, remembering immediately after to serve two forks as well.

«Only with those who let me» she admitted, casting an _obvious_ glance at her guest. «Besides, I like being tempted, too. Why deny it?»

Adam raised an eyebrow, starting to eat his dessert so as not to let slip any comments. It wasn't that he was afraid of offending or shocking the girl, they were both perfectly aware of how _dangerously_ that exchange of banter was on a whole other subject, but he knew he didn't materially have the time to let his mind get crowded with very un-innocent thoughts, not after realizing how _dangerous_ what he was doing with her was.

He didn't want to risk screwing up all his sanity, silently seizing in his memory and soul the fantasy of holding the warmth of a woman's neck in the palm of his hand — while with his other hand he tightened his grip on the soft hip, his erection _guided_ into a steady, deep penetration beyond the sex so wet with desire and so open for him.

_That neck surrounded by hair dyed a brilliant violet, that sex decorated only by a portion of dark hairs on the groin._

The thought made him quieter and more distant again, in a bland attempt to appear, at least in her eyes, no longer willing to welcome so lightly that _game_. And it had taken so little to feel himself betrayed again by his own body, the hint of an erection pulsing against the zipper of his pants.

Selene finished her meal much faster than he did, ducking into the bathroom after placing her cup, plate, and fork back in the sink.

«Take your time. I'm going to have a quick shower too.»

She was even faster to wash up, a primal uncertainty before deciding to move to her bedroom with a bun holding her hair and a towel covering her in all the right places, the smile on her lips indicating how consciously _bitchy_ she was to walk past her guest _dressed_ only in an emerald green towel — and him risking choking on the last sip of the second cup of coffee he had decided to serve himself, barely managing to hide his reaction.

She got ready in her room with her usual daily outfit, boots, jeans, heavy jersey, sweatshirt and braid for her hair, taking her usual scarf and unmistakable jacket into the living room, leaving the two accessories on the dining table, next to the agent's coat. She quickly retrieved a food container to store two large portions of lasagna from the fridge; when she was about to put the pan back in its place, Adam stood next to her, leaning against the cabinet with his hip.

«Nothing for me?», he asked, crossing his arms over his chest with an arched eyebrow.

To still, out of the blue, maintain an obvious distance between them would have hurt her inexorably.

_Yeah, keep telling yourself that shit again, Jensen._

The girl responded with a light chuckle, returning the pan to the shelf and retrieving another food container. Once done, she stored the lasagna in the fridge and arranged the two different portions in separate bags.

«Here you go, _mo ghaol_ », she added, casting him a glance to probe his expression.

When she saw him frown in a confused nod, she smiled a little more to tease him, bringing a hand to her lips.

«It's Scottish Gaelic», she said.

«I had gotten to that one. And what does that mean?», the man asked, intrigued.

Selene bent her face to the side, squeezing in her shoulders and continuing to look at him with that smirk on her lips. «In this particular case, I mean it as 'my dear'.»

Adam waited a moment, considering whether to ask what other meanings that word might have — or maybe there were two?

«And can it mean a different meaning as well?»

She nodded, biting her lower lip to dampen the wider smile she really couldn't hide, returning to the table to put on her scarf and jacket.

«And you don't want to tell me?», he asked, puzzled, moving next to his host to similarly retrieve his coat.

The fact that she had resumed _measuring_ words brought him to a subtle state of exasperation. And amusement.

_Come on, admit it. You get a kick out of the fact that this smart-ass little girl is constantly poking you. It makes you feel human, it makes you feel normal._

«My love», Selene said, staring at him with the corner of her lips lifted in that aware sneer. «It also means 'my love' to refer to the beloved one.»

Amused by his silent expression, she continued with a nod.

«Just another way to not take this too seriously, Jensen.»

And after retrieving both bags, her vu-phone and a few credits, she reached the front door and then turned to the agent as she opened the entrance, that amused smile still there.

«Come on, Adam, or you're going to make me later than expected at work.»

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

Like that one time they had taken the subway together, Selene decided to be in the same train car reserved for the augmented people. Jensen had covered his eyes with shields, not only out of simple habit, but mainly so that his absorbed expression wouldn't be noticed.

The girl was fully aware that she had made his thoughts a little more uncertain than expected, but she wasn't about to point out something obvious.

She instantly recognized how the ex-SWAT backed off when things between them seemed to be getting more tender or easygoing, she had ascertained this without any problem an hour or so earlier, though she had to admit that on the last few occasions something seemed to have _risked_ causing them to give in, let them be overwhelmed by far more sudden and inexplicable actions.

She wasn't sure she knew how to put a name to some behaviors enacted with Jensen: she found his company as enjoyable as he did in turn — he'd admitted it without hesitation once that tender moment of tickling and laughter was _interrupted_ — but she had no idea how some emotions presented themselves.

She knew the affection she felt for Artair and Damian simply because she had spent years wondering, years pondering what she felt for them.

She had realized that she had missed Adam, and in some ways, the feeling she had during his absence was very similar to the feeling she had from her instructor's absence, but therein lay the problem: there was something different, perhaps the fact that they'd only known each other for a short time, perhaps the realization that they were quite similar and quite different, or perhaps because Jensen was only recently beginning to be a little more open with her — but that closeness had given the young woman the feeling that their relationship was causing the man's moods to become less and less peaceful, and that gave her pause.

With Vaclav, too, she felt she was developing a new and unfamiliar relationship, but the boy let himself be _seen_ much more easily, making certain attitudes clearer and more direct, but even then, she wasn't sure she could put a certain and accurate name to what they shared almost daily.

The fact that she had grown up in an alienating and terrible environment hadn’t given her a way to fully develop her social skills, other than those with her parents and those roles of authority by which she had always been controlled and submissive.

Damian had been the first to show her how to build a different interpersonal relationship, even if it had taken him a long time to do so. Actually, it was thanks to him that Selene could say she had developed a stronger and more solid relationship with Artair, but with Adam and Vaclav she was discovering a new and unexplored ground; two different personalities, practically opposite, that were giving her the chance and time to be known, appreciated, and become attached to.

She had called Koller a friend, that socially acceptable and easy-to-understand term for everyone, someone she could live certain moments with and find some quiet and normalcy with. She could say the same about Jensen, but the fact that the man had always been ready to protect her, even when it wasn't necessary, gave her other feelings to probe.

Unlike him, who seemed to want to preserve her even from himself and his inner demons, the girl had thrown her history, her torments, and her uncertainties at him in many different ways, and Jensen had stood there, almost more willing than before not to abandon her.

She knew she should have looked deeper into how she felt, but she had nothing to compare with. She didn't have the means to determine _what_ was really binding her to the agent, other than the more common feelings of trust and loyalty; she'd only ever known those through Damian, too.

Perhaps, obnoxiously, a part of her had felt indebted for that unhoped-for empathy, that longed-for closeness, believing that sex could make up for that hidden _fault_ she perceived towards Adam.

Having such an opinion of herself discouraged her badly, but even more so it plunged her into a terrible sense of guilt.

She understood that she had assumed that Jensen might desire sexual intercourse to see himself repaid for his kindness and generosity. She had trampled on his kindness, belittled his behavior, exploited his trust. A devious and vicious way to betray, _rape_ , a person.

Understanding it hurt her. Realizing it led her to irretrievably disown herself. Adam probably thought of himself as mindlessly horrible because of his grafts, but she was the truly monstrous one. She was the one who was disgusting and mean.

Despite the presence of the shields, Selene knew he was watching her. Her face bowed for a moment, her hand free of the bags clenched on the steel support of the train car; she turned toward the exit doors, her back to him and holding the bags with her other palm.

She had almost burst into tears from the painfulness of that ponderation and didn't want to let him see her.

The gesture obviously didn't escape Adam's notice.

The possibility that the girl was beginning to ripen something different _within_ her had always seemed suddenly possible and certain, as well as rapid and impulsive, as if he had actually been waiting to see her much closer to decidedly overt gestures. Her young age acted as a glue to her impetuous and florid temper, but by now he recognized when she had her mind turned to more personal and inscrutable ponderations.

He wished he had asked her what had happened, what had troubled her so much, because if there was supposed to be someone worried, or just more thoughtful, between them, that person had to be him.

The mere idea that Selene was beginning to have different feelings _for him_ left him both terrified and bizarrely calm at the same time. Or, much more simply, he was magnifying a sentence said exactly the way it had been said, with hilarity and nonchalance.

How many times had he been addressed as "my dear" by other women? How many times had these words been used at random, to impose forced confidence? The fact that he and Artair's niece didn’t need to take advantage of something so ephemeral and insignificant didn’t necessarily mean that there was some truth beyond her words.

What the man lingered on was the double meaning that the girl had attributed to that expression: perhaps a part of him was beginning to wonder what it would be like to hear someone call him "my love" after so much time of silence and emptiness, but in the end, even the word "love" had been reduced to a shadow of its former self, misused by anyone.

Jensen denied imperceptibly with his head, clenching his carbon fists with some vehemence along his coat-covered hips.

The truth was that he was lying to himself. It was obvious what was going on, what had already happened, what he had initiated, what he had succumbed to. He had stubbornly continued to believe that nothing had changed between them, had foolishly thought that only by having sex with her would he find himself in that situation.

It had been enough to want _to feel_ again completely to see himself overwhelmed by Selene, her sweetness, her altruism, her beauty, her strength. But as long as he didn't name what he was continuing to hide, he could tell himself that it didn't really exist. As long as he continued to deny that he was the one who had to come to terms with the inevitability of his musings, perhaps he could make it go away.

_Coward. Fucking bastard. Say it. Say it, what you're doing. Admit what you did._

Adam closed his eyes from beyond the shields, a deep sigh managing to break the composure of his body, grateful that she couldn't see him because her back was to him.

_Admit it, you know it's pointless to keep denying it._

Returning to stare at her from the same position, his gaze still hidden by the dermal grafts, Jensen imperceptibly moved his face, inhaling deeply and nodding lightly, aware that he had to say it at least to himself.

He liked Selene. Exactly as it wasn’t supposed to happen. Exactly how he wasn't entitled to feel. In the worst way, because it was absolutely the wrong time, because his whole life was now a _wrong time_.

He liked Selene just awake, he liked Selene while she was washing dishes, he liked Selene while she was singing, and while she was eating, and while she was talking, and while she was dancing, and while she was _playing_ with him, and while she was _tormenting_ him with her smile, with her blue eyes, that _damn_ seahorse tattoo that enhanced her radiant splendor.

The inevitability tore him apart and instantly put him back together. It wasn't just her company he craved, what he yearned for. He wanted her. He wanted her completely. He wanted all of her. It wasn't just the physical attraction, her young and pure and innocent body, the desire to sink his face between her thighs and make her even more sublime, make her even more beautiful.

He wanted Selene.

He wanted to spend more evenings with her like the one he had just had, he wanted to go back to cooking with her, he wanted to go back to doing simple, intimate activities, he wanted to spend hours and hours on the couch with her clutched in his arms, and fall asleep there, and wake up there, and not remember violent nightmares, being rested and wanted in the same way. He wanted _to be living_ with her again.

When had he begun to trust Selene so much? When had he begun to feel a far deeper and more stoic need to spend more time with her? How many times had he thought about her while on the mission with TF29? How many times had he thought of contacting her? How many times had he dreamed of her? How many times had he wished to hold her close?

The answers to those questions were all _dangerously_ wrong. He was wrong.

How could something like that work? How could he believe that the feelings he had tried in vain to slaughter would lead to something positive?

It wasn't just a matter of age, perfectly debatable now, as she had a decidedly strong and resourceful maturity and temper, but it was purely a matter of the life they had to live, the battles they still had to face, the enemies they had to fight against.

Being aware of wanting her in his existence doomed him.

How would he have endured knowing she was in danger? How would he have endured seeing her fight? To see her struggle against their terrible and fearsome adversaries?

The idea of continuing together on that path, understood in a much more metaphorical sense, shone in his soul like a timid and unstable flame, but it was there, and it left him agonized: he didn't want to believe again in something as beautiful and magnificent as the thought of having a partner with whom he could share that future, only to find himself still betrayed, still disappointed, still exploited. Still heartbroken.

He didn't want to put so much hope in one person and find himself waiting like a martyr for the moment when his dreams would be shattered again. He took for granted the impossibility of a _happy ending_ , because his _fucking_ life was stuck in lies and conspiracies, but in doing so he was going back to burying his humanity in the recesses of darkness that had devoured him for so long.

He'd wanted _to feel_ again, Selene had shown him how, and now there he was, devastated by the certainty that he felt something absolutely wrong about the young woman.

Adam sighed quickly, extending a robotic hand toward the steel support of the train car: his fingers stopped about four inches above those of the girl. He moved a step closer to her, finally lowering the already raised end to gently squeeze the smaller, feminine one.

The emptiness in his chest expanded a little more as he saw the contrast between her _flesh_ , good and perfect, and his _machine_ , insane and aberrant.

Selene collected herself at the contact, first looking at the carbon palm covering hers, then tilting her head back and up to observe Jensen, finding him still with his eyes covered by the shields.

The ex-SWAT swayed slightly from the movement of the train but his face continued to be turned towards her, his lips surrounded by his beard tightened into a straight line that broke after a brief sigh.

Her expression was pure and innocent, without fear or disgust, maybe just a little unsure. She looked at him as if it was perfectly normal to be so close to her and try to touch her. _Christ_ , the way she accepted him, the way she didn't deny herself to him, the way she tried to get to know him, give him the gift of herself, of her goodness of heart, of her nature, was what had led him inexorably to have those feelings for her. He wished he could have found the courage somewhere to tell her _his_ truth.

It was at that point that the subway arrived at Čapek Fountain Station.

The man exhaled, a nod in the direction of the sliding doors that opened in front of the young woman.

«Let's go», he did, moving quickly toward the exit, abandoning her hand softly.

Artair's niece followed him after a moment's hesitation, surprised by that sudden change in attitude and walking with a wider stride to flank him.

«What's going on?»

Adam passed the turnstiles and a police officer stopped him to check his papers. Selene waited for him in silence, picking up the pace as soon as he did too, staying at his side. When he slowed his pace and turned to look at her, his eyes hidden by the shields prevented his expression from being fully visible.

He reached out a hand for the bag containing the portion of food intended for him, while the girl still watched him with that questioning expression.

«I'll meet you later at the bookstore», the ex-SWAT said, staring at her.

The girl barely nodded, doubtful.

«Uhm... Alright», she replied in a rather unsure tone, scrutinizing him from that very short distance, but still trying not to look so bewildered.

She watched him hesitate for a moment before turning and resuming his pace towards his apartment building, while she stood in the same spot for a few more seconds, suddenly certain that _something_ unexplainable had happened again that she knew, once again, she had to give a name to.

⚜⚜⚜⚜⚜

When Adam reached Koller's store after making an obligatory stop in his own home to change his clothes, he could have gone in and out of the sewer passageway, but he wasn't absolutely sure that the doctor was already in the lab — more bullshit with which to justify the need to see _her_.

He walked through the entrance of the Time Machine and the bell announced his presence, looking around for a moment for _someone_.

Selene appeared from beyond a shelf, near the stairs, a dozen books in her arms; she had taker off her jacket and scarf, leaving her hoodie open over a black jersey adorned on the rectangular neckline by a simple portion of lace that caressed her exposed skin, the crease and roundness of her breasts visible without much trouble.

«Hey», she greeted him, walking up to him with a smile. «Vaclav's waiting for you downstairs, I warned him you were coming by.»

The agent nodded, swallowing silently and running out of words again when he saw her walk over to the desk on the left side of the room to leave the books on the shelf, still following her with his eyes as she walked around the work table to activate the laptop.

He realized that being able to observe her from _that sudden perspective_ made him immensely aware of all those sensations that he had begun to embrace again with renewed need.

The calm chaos that lingered in his chest _stunned_ him, but having that certainty, the most important one he could experience, soothed him: it had always been like that for him, the awareness that finally giving a more solid form to his emotions, a name to them, was worth anything, even the upheaval they caused him.

He liked Selene so much, in a way he hadn't felt in an extremely long time.

The girl lifted her face to look at him, still cheerful, just a little intrigued by his silence. She seemed to have found relief from whatever had troubled her during the subway ride.

«You remember how to access the lab, right?», she asked him in a relaxed voice.

Jensen remembered it very well, but hesitated a moment longer to think, finally shaking his head. «Actually no, I always forget how to activate the passage.»

The young woman barely chuckled, moving in his direction and pointing to the stairs with a nod. «I'll walk you to the office, but I'll have to come back here afterward.»

As they climbed the steps, the man stood to her side, bluntly calling himself an idiot.

What the hell was he doing? Was he really disrupting the girl's duties to spend a few minutes with her? He knew he didn't have time to talk to her right then, so why was he persisting in acting that way?

«You're pretty busy, huh?», he began, his tone forcibly light.

Selene nodded quickly, still smiling. «It's Christmas Eve. A lot of customers shop online at the last minute, so I already know I'll have to go back and forth from the laptop to the shelves to take the requested books and get them ready before they arrive, because they obviously require in-store pickup as well.»

She turned to look at him, bringing her hands to her chest in an enthusiastic gesture.

«But I enjoy so much being surrounded by books and the smell of them. By now I have an endless supply of novels to read, at home, and the problem is that I keep buying them. Vaclav also doesn't help me, he has already told me that for Christmas he wants to gift me a 45% discount on whatever amount I plan to spend here in the store.»

Jensen watched her with one corner of his lips lifted, subtly amused by her lightheartedness, and beguiled still by her beauty. «Koller has never made me such an offer. I might even be offended.»

The girl burst out laughing, making her way down the small hallway that led to the office. «If you want books, just tell me, Adam. I have no idea what to get you for Christmas.»

The man paused as she opened the wooden door, standing still for a few moments, the obvious feeling that he didn't deserve something like this filling his mind.

Artair's niece noticed his absence a few feet from the doorway, turning to look for him with a doubtful expression the moment he advanced slowly, raising his hands in a nod.

«No, Selene. You don't have to give me a gift.»

The young woman curved her brown eyebrows slightly.

«Why?», she asked, tilting her face. « I would love to.»

The agent shook his face weakly, frowning from above his shields. «I don't... I don't think I'll have time to give you a gift.»

The girl giggled in response, rolling her eyes just before turning toward the large desk, passing it to approach the shelf containing the _famous red book_.

«Adam, it's not like I expect you to give me a gift just because I want to give you one.»

The secret passageway revealed itself before them. The ex-SWAT moved up to her, pausing again as he made his eyes visible, unsure of what his expression might look like at that moment, but just as sure that he wanted to show his sincerity.

Selene tilted her face, leaning with one hip against the bookcase that had moved via the mechanism.

«I'll tell you what. Do you want to give me a gift? When you'll be busy tonight with your mission for the Collective, don't get killed or hurt. I'd be pretty sad if anything happens to you», she added in a slightly lower voice, her blue gaze lending those words a decidedly more palpable concern.

Jensen reserved a long look for her, nodding with a half-smile. He felt like lifting a hand to caress her cheek decorated by the seahorse, running his fingers over the tattoo and stopping again just inches from the corner of her lips — the memory of how he had brushed against her on the couch while she was asleep.

«You want to give me a present?», he mimicked her, pointing at her with a nod. «Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.»

«I don't doubt that», she said, shrugging her shoulders, blushing a little at the intensity of the agent's _alien_ look. « But asking me not to worry about you is a request I can't fulfill, sorry.»

Adam inhaled deeply, rolling his eyes to disguise the urge to linger longer on the pinker hue of her cheeks, a gesture the girl responded to by bringing a hand to her lips to hide the spontaneous giggle she hadn't been able to hold back.

When Selene cast a glance at the office door she flinched from the shelf, swaying slightly in place before taking a step toward the rest of the room.

«I have to get back downstairs. Pass by and say goodbye when you're done with Vaclav, okay?»

«I will», he let slip without even thinking about it, nodding.

He watched as she disappeared through the doorway, giving him another smile just before closing the office door behind her. He covered his eyes with his shields again and shook his head after a deep sigh, calling himself an idiot once more.

He'd always been pretty straightforward about how to approach a woman he liked, he'd never really needed to waste or take time, but it was that kind of confidence he felt belonged to a previous life.

At that moment, he doubted very much that he could even think of exposing his emotions to her: even if she acted towards him as if she had sincere affection, he couldn’t know if beyond that there was the same feeling that he felt.

He would have liked to speak to her with his heart on his sleeve, but the trap he was once again entrenching himself inside was ready to tear him apart once again. Finding out he was afraid to suffer made him feel human, but at what price was that humanity resurfacing, with everything Jensen had forbidden himself to feel for the past couple of years?

When Adam finished his brief visit to his doctor about an hour later, he knew he had to get to TF29 very quickly and contact Artair, but he assured BlueDevil's niece that he would say goodbye before he left.

This was obviously a rather clear excuse for himself; beyond that, having Koller give him a puzzled look when he had moved in the direction of the elevator and not the sewer passage made him feel doubly idiotic.

Once near the staircase that led to the ground floor of the store, he saw Selene engaged with a customer, a young boy with blond hair, dark eyes and dressed in good quality clothes.

«You were my salvation», the stranger exclaimed, taking the bag full of books with one hand. «So, you do home deliveries, too?»

«We're relying on a courier service», she replied, taking off her sweatshirt to let it on the nearby chair.

The hair collected in the usual herringbone braid allowed them to focus unceremoniously on the line of the neck decorated by tattoos, along with the black jersey and jeans that outlined with some precision her physique.

«It takes a few days, but we can add several useful services to the shipment.»

«Oh, great!», he continued, stretching his free fingers across the desk in a confidential gesture. «What are these services? Don't you ever make any deliveries? That would be an option to consider, wouldn't it?»

Adam clenched his jaw, arching his eyebrows: the unpleasant feeling that he was witnessing something extremely annoying made its way into his soul, leaving him doubtful.

Did he _really_ have to see such a scene and be overwhelmed by a primal flush of jealousy? By what right did he think he could feel that way?

The young woman sketched a brief smile, bringing a hand to her lips to hide the way her face manifested a certain detachment. «No, I'm sorry.»

«That's a shame. I mean, it would definitely be nice if you were the one making the deliveries. Such a pretty girl...»

The stranger paused, leaning over the table to make his interest more obvious.

«Maybe we could get together after Christmas for coffee, or a beer.»

Selene stared at the young man with a calm expression, her blue gaze clear and quiet, but the line of her brown eyebrows gave a good indication of how uncomfortable she suddenly felt, along with her head that quickly moved in a nod of uncertainty.

That movement was enough to convince Jensen to descend the stair with noisy steps, making the sound of the boots much heavier and louder.

When the stranger turned to look at him, his dark eyes looked at him with an expression first surprised and then immediately intimidated, hesitating for a moment before turning a glance at her.

«Uhm... I really have to go now. Thank you for your time, and Merry Christmas», the customer quickly made, raising his free hand in a greeting and heading for the door with a hurried gait.

«Bye», she replied, her gaze intimately amused and relieved.

Once Adam reached the desk, Artair's niece gave him a nod, one corner of her lips turned up and her arms crossed over her chest.

«Are you scaring the buyers, Jensen?»

The man shrugged his shoulders in a careless gesture, staring at her from behind his shields. «He didn't seem particularly interested in buying.»

Selene chuckled, nodding to confirm that comment. «He's actually a regular, but he seemed more in the mood to chat, today.»

«Or to ask you out», he added, freezing for a moment when he realized he'd stated that thought in an all too upset tone.

The girl nodded again, amused by his bizarre directness. «Yes, I noticed that, too.» Her expression became thoughtful, but still serene. «Any news from the med check?»

The agent looked away for a moment, a quick nod of assent that anticipated the verbal response. «All within the norm.»

He knew he had to go away and leave Selene to her work, but the idea of waiting and procrastination wasn't really in his temper, although he couldn't ignore how out of place he felt to simply consider exposing his feelings to her.

Maybe he simply needed to get away from her, focus on the mission assigned by the Collective, sleep in his apartment in Překážka, in his bed, and not hugged to her. Maybe he didn't actually feel anything he thought he was feeling, maybe he was imagining to have some feelings for her because his mind was literally intoxicated by her presence, but the more he looked at her, the longer he stayed in her company, the more he wanted to continue to be _intoxicated_ by her.

BlueDevil's niece watched him again, intrigued by his umpteenth silence. She tilted her face to one side, deciding to move past the desk to rest her buttocks on the edge of the table, closer to the man; she left her hands at the sides of her hips, clasped gently on the antique wooden shelf, but made it clear to him that she wanted to return to a more intimate conversation with her body language.

«Adam, what is it? You've been looking like you want to tell me something ever since we got off the subway.»

He hesitated, raising his head and shaking it after a moment. The gesture was taken by the girl as a negative response to her words, convincing her to continue with a few more attempts.

«If it's because of what I did or said this morning, if I bothered you too much, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I apologize.»

Jensen immediately denied it, making his augmented eyes visible, and Selene stared at him with a surprised expression, still standing by, intimately amazed by the intensity of his look.

«I need to talk to you», he admitted in a tone unsuspectedly calm even for himself.

She brought one arm in front of her waist, clasping her fingers at the other elbow. «I'm listening.»

The agent remained silent for a few seconds too long, giving her time to shake her head in an uncertain nod.

«Adam, if this is about what you told me today... When you said you wanted to tell me what happened to you, you don't... You don't have to if you changed your mind.»

The ex-SWAT looked at her with a serious face, in his mind a single scenario depicting the disastrous way it would all end if he gave in to the need to tell her how he felt.

He had to give himself time, but more importantly, he had to give it to her, because confessing that _truth_ to her would drastically change everything.

He nodded quickly, again calling himself an idiot.

«Yes, it's about that, but you're partly right: it's not appropriate to talk about it now. You're busy and I have work to do.»

He covered his eyes with his shields to hide the fact that he was lying, but he wasn't sure Selene hadn't already noticed.

The young woman stared at him with that perfectly visible slight motion of anticipation, finally smiling gently at him. «All right. Anytime, Adam, you know where to find me.»

She paused, quickly reflecting on a thought she wanted to consider simply harmless, in keeping with the way they had spent the previous evening.

«The bookstore will be closed all day tomorrow, so...», she began.

Jensen lifted a corner of his lips, the rest of those words rather obvious. «You still don't know if you're going to do anything with your uncle?»

«He'll probably contact me later today, partly to tell me that he'll be busy helping you tonight», she said, shrugging her shoulders. «Either way, regardless of whether we do something over lunch or dinner, consider yourself invited, Adam. Or, if nothing's going to get done, come over to my place and we'll watch another boring movie together. Or, I don't know… Whatever you want to do.»

She shook his head, lowering her gaze.

«Sorry, I'm assuming that maybe you don't have anything planned for Christmas Day.»

The man took a step closer, enticing her to raise her head.

«And it is, indeed, but it looks like I just got an invitation right now», he answered her with a small smile, aware that he had taken a flirtier tone than expected.

 _To hell with it_ , it had been so natural and spontaneous to consider that proposal right away.

Selene nodded imperceptibly, blushing, the hand on her elbow a little tighter, a sign of a much more overt physical response, accompanied by everything her body was _screaming_ at that moment: she knew there was more to it, she knew Jensen was withholding some information, and she couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't about the task the Collective had assigned him.

She would have liked to try to convince him to let her go with him that night, but she was certain that the answer would always be the same. She couldn't expect, at least in that circumstance, to participate in something that didn't affect her personally, yet making the request wasn't all that untypical of her.

«Are you sure I can't come with you tonight?»

Adam raised his eyebrows past his shields, that half-smile still on his lips. «Absolutely sure. Your combat suit is damaged, isn't it?»

«It's just a little hole, it's not compromised in any way», she admitted, slightly sullen. «It's usable and perfectly functional.»

The man chuckled at her attempt at convincing him, looking at her for a few more moments before taking a step back.

«You know that's not necessary», he told her in a gentle tone, tilting his head in a nod toward the door. «I must go now, Selene. I wish you a good day, and a Happy Christmas Eve.»

She huffed weakly, nodding unconvinced. «Yes, you too, Adam», she added with that unmistakable pout on her face.

She waited until the agent was a few steps away from the Time Machine entrance to sigh weakly.

«And be careful, please.»

When Jensen was out of the bookstore, the cold air hit him with inclemency, feeling it on his face like an icy, damp lash. He lit a cigarette, sucking in the first few puffs with some haste and resuming his pace toward the subway station.

Although he had shown no signs of having heard Selene, Adam had been perfectly able to hear those last words spoken in such an apprehensive tone. He had been tempted to stop, to turn and look at her, to probe her expression. It would have been difficult to leave the store if he had given in.

He just needed time, he just needed to calmly think and determine if what bound him to the young woman were decidedly more important and deeper feelings, but as much as he still tried to curb the vivid marasmus in his soul, he knew himself well enough to be more than sure already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I was able to share with you the beautiful fanart created by the talented [Nifriel](https://www.deviantart.com/nifriel).  
> Maybe you found something different from the chapter, but for me, this drawing is perfect like this.  
> I wanted to see so much Adam and Selene "portrayed" together, but I don't have the skills to be able to draw even a fish, so I preferred to turn to someone else.  
> I hope you enjoy this belated Christmas gift, and that you are enticed to let me know what you think of this new update.  
> Also, I finally reached the same number of chapters posted in both versions. It's been such a struggle, especially since I think I've translated three updates in less than a month: no matter how much help I get from DeepL and Grammarly, I always have to correct the mistakes the translator makes, and try to find the mistakes I make myself.  
> I'm exhausted.  
> From now on I will update both versions together. This means that for a new chapter you will have to wait at least three to four weeks.  
> I remind you to follow the dedicated blog on Tumblr [Deus Ex: War Paint](https://deusexwarpaint.tumblr.com) for updates on the story, pictures of Adam and Deus Ex in general, headcanons and much more, including my horrible attempts to take some pictures of poor India Eisley, dye her hair purple, and paste "Selene's tattoos" on her.  
> Thanks again, see you/read around.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam requests Artair's assistance with a mission in Prague assigned by the Collective.

[Way Down We Go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzXuQbcp8Yc)

Adam arrived at the Podbaba train station about twenty minutes after 11 PM. Luckily, it was a metro stop not particularly frequented by Prague's citizens, especially on Christmas Eve night, which allowed him to move a little more comfortably out of the underground structure despite wearing his combat armor — just that one, because bringing any weapons with him, except for his offensive aug systems, had been necessary for a variety of reasons.

He walked in a south-easterly direction, continuing on his way to get close to the Vltava River, walking briskly but still staying on the stretch not lit by streetlights.

The temperature had dropped drastically compared to the daytime hours and the proximity of the waterway made the area much more humid. The district wasn't particularly well-kept and in perfect order, but it certainly couldn't _compete_ with the filth and degradation in Překážka. The buildings he could see were quite similar to many others in the city, with brick-red roofs and white walls encrusted here and there in several spots, but the road surface was mostly covered with a creaking layer of dry leaves.

When he reached the road that ran along the river, he changed direction to continue northwest.

«Artair, I'm already on the move.»

The hacker's voice spread through his infolink, calm and ready to answer.

« _Perfect, I’m activating the tracking to follow you._ » After a brief pause, McTavish resumed speaking. « _Do you want a recap on the mission again?_ »

Jensen continued to walk without slowing his pace, always taking extreme care to avoid excessively bright spots.

«Not that it's really necessary, but I appreciate your caution.»

BlueDevil let a quick nod of assent escape, and began to repeat what they both knew almost by heart.

« _Let's start by saying that you are heading to Císařský Ostrov, Prague's Imperial Island. It’s the largest islet on the river, has an area of 66 hectares, is part of the Bubeneč cadastral area, although it contains no residential structures, and connects to a hiking trail from Stromovka to Troja._ »

McTavish cleared his throat, swallowing what must have been probably a sip of coffee.

Adam had left him at his house, along with his coat, perfectly sure to receive technical assistance via the hacker’s console station in the hidden room beyond the closet in his bedroom.

« _The mission the Collective assigned you is rooted in an investigation that occurred in late September, when Samizdat disclosed data about a chemical incident involving water supplies in some of the city's districts._ »

«Artair», the agent called back to him in an amused voice, «are you actually repeating to me what I already know? It was me that found that document, at the Palisade.»

« _I'm aware of it, but I actually reread it to be totally convinced myself_ », the other admitted, his tone equally amused, hinting at some astonishment at the idea that the ex-SWAT had snuck into a state-of-the-art bank like that. « _But back to us. You need access to the central wastewater treatment plant to ascertain what really goes on there. The facility was redone from scratch after several reminders from the European Union. As we already imagine, and as Janus also suggested, there is a possibility that something was built in the lower levels in that place, which precisely led to the contamination of the water._ »

Jensen continued down the street until he came to a low brick structure and a blue metal gate on his right that he could easily leap over, giving him access to the TG Masaryk Water Research Institute parking lot. It was a large construction of a few levels with white first-floor walls, orange-color brick on the upper levels and double-hung windows with blue frames.

He advanced to pass the forecourt and stopped near the scaffolding that connected to an aquatic platform, activating his smart vision to check that there were no guards on the artificial path. He resumed his pace with a ready gait, passing the linear trail without any problem and reaching the opposite bank in a few moments.

«I'm on the island, continuing south along the river.»

« _Based on your walking speed, you should arrive at the facility within about ten minutes. There shouldn't be any guards in the areas of the tanks and cisterns, because anyway, if anything were to end up in the water, the security systems would kick in._ »

Artair let another silence escape, clearing his throat after a deep breath.

« _Can I ask you a question, Jensen, before we get into action?_ »

The agent was momentarily surprised by that request, hesitating only a moment before answering. «Sure, go on.»

BlueDevil didn’t immediately continue, allowing the ex-SWAT to experience a primal sense of alarm, a certainty that there could only be one _thing_ that was likely to upset McTavish so much.

« _Did my niece ask you to go with you, tonight?_ »

Adam clenched his jaw for a moment, looking around among the vegetation to make sure he spotted any surveillance teams, if any. That there was still no one around _forced_ him to have to answer, bringing back many thoughts in his mind to linger on.

«Yes, but I told her that wasn't necessary.»

The hacker emitted a quick nod of assent, his tone evidently relieved. « _Well... I thank you for choosing to leave her out of this mission._ »

«No problem, Artair», he replied, waiting a few seconds before picking up the pace, as he paused to calmly ponder what to say. «Selene doesn't need to find herself involved in the Collective's assignments. I suppose keeping her away from them is in your best interest as well.»

« _Absolutely, you bet_ », McTavish admitted, his voice much more relaxed than it had been moments before.

The agent exhaled, shaking his head. He resumed moving after waiting for even the smallest sign of human presence beyond him in that part of the island. Probably the cold and the absence of any problems in the tanks and the external machinery allowed him to move without running into any patrols.

«Did she make the same request of you that she made of me?»

« _No, but that she knew about the mission made me guess that you had already told her about it. In fact, you also saved me from having to give her more explanation than I expected, because Selene could still question my word and think I was again shutting her out of what she and I started._ »

BlueDevil seemed to ponder for a few more moments, resuming shortly thereafter.

« _She's spending the evening with Koller, just so she doesn't spend Christmas Eve alone, but she asked me to let her know when it's all over._ »

Jensen lifted the corner of his lips, nodding to himself, taking in the obviousness of what he already knew — Selene worried about him, Selene in concern for him, Selene wanting comfort.

«It's not a problem for me.»

During the course of the day, the agent had had little opportunity to ponder on what he had begun to understand that very morning. He had had to file a couple of reports to TF29, attend a closing meeting with his other colleagues, stay at the agency until early afternoon, well past lunchtime, and then spend the rest of the time at Artair's house, studying with him the materials provided for the assignment.

For the briefest of moments, he found himself wondering what it would be like to be there, in Císařský Ostrov, with the girl: after some time, he had to admit, especially to himself, how much that infiltration into the Versalife facility in Hradec Králové had made him much more aware of the girl's physical and mental skills.

He couldn't deny that suddenly feeling secure in Selene's presence and support had given that _mission_ more relaxed connotations, at least at first — he remembered all too well the effect of _nerves on edge_ felt by both of them afterward, but it was what had happened in the basement that had given him a much bigger picture.

He didn't need to hide it anymore, not from him.

The idea of taking Selene with him had crossed his mind, but at least in that circumstance, it had been easy to opt for the wiser choice and not for the more desired one, also because it would have been too easy to give in to the fear of knowing she was in danger, facing a guard or some automated security system. In order to protect her, he would have risked compromising so much else, and it was a loss of lucidity so significant that it left him troubled.

With a quick sigh, Adam devoted a scrupulous look at the surroundings, distinguishing without difficulty to his left, in the dark, the large circular tanks that bordered the nearby paved road. He preferred to continue walking among the few trees in there, passing a large industrial shed open on several sides and containing several machines, moving in the direction of a first two-story building of no use for his assignment.

He knew he was now close to that part of the island where several warehouses had been built and where some large tanks stood, passing the first bridge on the right that led back to the Prague shore. In that area, the lighting was better arranged and well-functioning, connected in some points to several surveillance cameras easily avoidable with precise movements or by activating the cloaking system.

He also passed the entrance of the second bridge on his right and continued on the path through the trees, descending a flight of steps to skirt another small building. When he finally managed to lay his eyes on the large building that had replaced the old central wastewater treatment plant, he noticed a couple of guards at the main entrance, about one thousand feet away from his position.

He continued to the nearby parking lot, knowing that he could access the structure from the fire escape, which was controlled by some other cameras. With a leap, he climbed over the fence and moved slightly crouched among the very few cars, still paying extreme attention to any noise made by a possible guard nearby.

He moved to the right side of the building, contacting BlueDevil just before he got too close to the wall of the structure.

«Artair, I'm almost to the fire escape. Another recap is always helpful.»

The hacker replied in a ready and affable tone, giving him the feeling that he was particularly attentive to their ever-active communication and his movements remotely viewed.

« _The facility has offices and a few rooms designated for the public on the first and second floor levels, while the third and fourth floors contain all the rooms responsible for water control. We know that they have maintained several underground tunnels that lead to the outside of the island, directly into the river bed on the north side, but there is obviously no official information on any underground levels. You'll have to look for anything that might lead you into restricted or hidden areas, and allow me to connect to the computers on-site so I can secure to you more information while you're there._ »

McTavish waited just a moment before continuing, while Adam got to start climbing the first steel steps, occasionally activating his glass-shield to avoid the cameras.

« _Somewhere on the top floor should be the security room, it would be good to start there._ »

Jensen nodded imperceptibly, though perfectly aware that BlueDevil obviously couldn't see him, a natural and instinctive response to the amount of information he had just vocally _reviewed_.

«I'll see how far I can go from the outside. Over and out.»

The agent noticed with discreet disappointment that all the doors that could lead into the building were controlled and locked by a fire alarm system that wasn’t advisable to trigger in that case. He needed to keep a low profile for the duration of the mission; he didn't need to make it possible for the state police or fire department to intervene.

Upon reaching the last level of the steel platform he realized he could get to the roof with a jump, performing the action and checking for cameras or guards.

With his smart vision, he spotted the providential access to the ventilation system, ducking into the duct immediately after removing the panel. The path was straight and slightly downhill, with a couple of closed observation grids below him that he didn't risk opening for fear of making too much noise. At the end of the passage, he checked the place again before exiting, finding himself in a tiny room filled to the brim with brooms and a couple of not-so-recent vacuum cleaners.

«McTavish, can you locate me more specifically?», he asked in a confident tone.

« _You're in the middle area of the fourth floor, pretty far from the fire escape. Did you have to find another access?_ », BlueDevil questioned him, letting a bit of amusement show in his voice. « _In fact, I was beginning to be rather intrigued by the movements you were making: based on the holographic map of the facility, you were walking along some very strange paths._ »

«Uh-huh», Jensen let slip with some annoyance at the obvious irony he could sense in the hacker — decidedly inappropriate and damn familiar with the temper of a TF29 pilot of his acquaintance. «I didn't feel it was appropriate to force one of those automatic doors, it would definitely set off some alarms», he said. «I'll start looking for the security room.»

« _I can try increasing the signal range of your infolink, maybe I can detect the servers through our communications. Over and out._ »

The ex-SWAT checked the corridor beyond the wooden door, moving into it after a few moments, choosing to walk to the left by simple personal decision. He didn't meet any staff or guards, but he carefully avoided the surveillance cameras set up at the entrances of some openings leading to the water control rooms. For the sake of thoroughness, he entered those rooms, summarily reading documents left unattended on the work tables and spending a few minutes on the equipment in the hypothesis of obtaining some useful information on any areas of the structure of greater interest.

When he reached a descending flight of stairs at the end of that part of the fourth floor, he knew he had to go back to check the rest of the level. He passed a few minutes later the door of the small storeroom he had entered earlier, walking with a silent and controlled pace, paying as always some attention to the cameras.

Artair's voice spread through the infolink as he moved out of a huge control room equipped with tanks filled with crystal-clear water — and judging by the tubes connected to a system of artificial lungs supported by steel structures, the liquid in those tanks must have been particularly oxygenated, but the documents only indicated scientific data concerning the presence of common bacteria.

« _Jensen, I believe you are approaching the security room. Continue in the direction you are already going._ »

«Roger that.»

It was after he uttered that quick words that the radar navigator system informed him of the presence of some people in the portion of the hallway in front of him, in an area he couldn't see because of the angle of the walls.

He bent down to move along the side to his right, past other rooms filled with machinery and instruments and past two surveillance cameras that controlled access to those specific spaces. Before he even saw the two operators, he heard a faint scattered chatter as he approached the ajar door of what appeared to be a very small fourth-floor food court.

The facility's employees were dressed in gray and blue coveralls, sitting around a small table set up near a couple of sideboards and a not particularly new refrigerator; on the opposite wall was another door that probably led to a bathroom designated for staff use.

They spoke in Czech in a bored and tired voice, often snorting and letting slip a couple of expletives that the ex-SWAT now easily recognized — swearing was still among the first verbal expressions one learned of a foreign language.

He had no reason to enter that room, and since they were civilians, he had no intention of stunning them without a very good motive. He continued down the corridor with a silent step, always leaning close to the wall, and determined that he could straighten up after a couple of minutes.

The security room revealed itself with a plaque on the wall next to a sliding metal door. Adam stepped inside shortly after making sure he was totally alone, closing the entrance behind him, the environment around him quite similar to thousands of other places used for the same purpose, with a relevant computer workstation and screens that recalled the images transmitted by the cameras scattered around the building.

«McTavish, are you already in?»

« _Yes, with no problem. I can disable almost all the security systems on the fourth and third floors, but there seems to be a different system for the first floor and second floor, perhaps because it is also intended for the public and visitors._ »

A brief pause anticipated a resounding surprise verse, slightly alarming the agent.

« _Oh!_ »

The ex-SWAT promptly recoiled, looking at the screens posted on the wall to see if there was anything to identify.

«What is it? What's going on?», he asked, also sharpening his hearing towards the door behind him.

« _Nothing, I just realized it's been past midnight for just five minutes._ »

The other's soft chuckle made him arch an eyebrow, the urge to address him with unflattering epithets.

« _Merry Christmas, Jensen._ »

Adam rolled his gaze covered by shields, one corner of his lips barely curved into a faint smile anyway.

«Seriously, Artair? At this very moment, you remind me too much of your niece.»

BlueDevil chuckled again, his voice kept soft and relaxed. « _Oh, well... Selene had to take from someone the ability to joke at the most inopportune times, but don't ever say anything like that to her, or she'll drive us both crazy._ »

That faint smile continued to remain there on Jensen's lips, his mind suddenly focused on something else, finally letting go of the rest of his thoughts.

 _I think she's already done so with me._ _By a long shot._

With the I-link's subvocal communication, he didn't need to clear his throat, but after that thought, if he were to speak normally, he couldn't avoid having to swallow the slight lump that had formed in his throat.

«Do you think she's still awake?»

He could send her wishes message, taking advantage of that moment of calm to satisfy the urge to let her know everything was going well. Perhaps it was wiser to queue the sending of the short text so as not to risk being contacted by her during the mission. Or perhaps the wiser choice wasn’t to give in completely to such a whim.

« _She'll definitely stay up until I let her know we've finished the Collective assignment. I know her well enough to know that underneath she'll be a little worried, or perhaps slightly annoyed that we left her at home, but I'm still glad she's with Koller_ », McTavish admitted, his tone colored by a hint of affection perfectly audible even through that less than direct conversation. « _Since she started working at the bookstore, she's more... At peace. Probably because she has less free time to dwell on some memories and thoughts._ »

Artair cleared his throat in conclusion, another long pause as Adam turned to the active screens to get a feel for the third floor of the building. He couldn't identify more complete details with any clarity from the images, but he recognized without any trouble what appeared to be a control room for the entire facility, large enough to house several employees inside.

Paying attention to the hacker's words had been all too easy, but he didn't want to risk getting distracted and ignoring possible noises outside the room — in any case, the navigator radar system would inform him of someone's proximity.

In fact, he definitely preferred not to think about the idea of talking to McTavish about Selene.

 _Fuck_ , how was he going to explain to the other man that _maybe_ he had started to have stronger feelings for the young woman?

He knew he couldn't keep quiet about something like that in case he decided to expose what he felt to the girl, but the hypothesis became more solid if they were _in that_ _together_. And again, he wondered how such an upheaval could even be compatible with his own life, with his aims, with what he had to do and what he would do.

In a rather cowardly way, he wished he had the strength to erase and ignore those feelings, because it was all too pleasant to think about giving in to them.

He'd longed for it so badly, he'd wanted it so badly, he hadn't realized how much he'd missed finding himself interested in a girl, finding himself so attracted to Selene in any aspect of her personality, until he'd metaphorically thrown himself into her arms, but reminding himself what was at stake didn't really give him the courage to accept lightly what he was feeling in his heart.

An artificial heart that had replaced the one made of flesh and muscles, but that seemed to experience the same effect the girl had on him. Exactly the same as the burning desire to have her in his arms, those mechanical arms, carbon-made, black as obsidian, designed only to kill or make harmless an enemy.

How could he believe he had the right to hold Selene again?

« _I'm done, Jensen_ », Artair brought him back to the present in his usual calm and careful tone of voice, causing him to quickly flicker his armor-protected back. « _Move to the third floor now. There's a control room that might contain useful information on the two staff computers there._ »

The ex-SWAT recoiled for a moment, walking toward the door.

«Yeah, I think I saw that room from the screens», he replied, his mind still a little turned to want to send a message to BlueDevil's niece.

He denied imperceptibly with his head, selecting in the HUD interface the rapid typing program and formulating a short, quick text, confirming to send it automatically over the next morning. At least he was sure she wouldn't contact him while he was there.

The door opened in front of him a few feet away in a mechanical hiss, and an employee saw him as soon as he looked inside the room.

Jensen's first thought was a silent expletive, but he knew what he had to do. He sprinted towards the poor stranger, grabbing him to pull him into the room and immediately pushing him against the nearby wall, causing the back of his head to hit the wall, causing him to immediately lose consciousness. He took the body to the floor so as not to cause to him any further damage, waiting a few seconds in silence to detect any other noise from the corridor; once he was sure he could move calmy, he decided to bring beyond the corner of a filing cabinet the man he recognized as one of the two guys he had seen in the small break room.

He wondered where the other colleague might be, aware that he had to consider whether to leave the man there or look for another hiding place.

« _Adam, are you okay?_ », asked Artair via the I-link.

«Yes, an employee entered the room just as I was about to leave. I admit I didn't pay attention to my radar, my mistake», the agent replied in a subtly angry tone.

He had been distracted like an idiot, it would have been enough to pay the right attention to activate the glass-shield at the right moment and get out of that room without hurting a civilian.

« _Oh_ », commented the hacker, the tone of his voice surprised. « _Do you think we should abort the mission?_ »

«Absolutely not. The employee will be unconscious for quite a while, but I plan to move him to a different room as a precaution. Over and out», Jensen concluded, trying not to let anything show.

He waited a few minutes by the door, listening, before returning to the sleeping body and carrying it on one shoulder with no problem. He reached the corridor with a silent step and his senses alerted, the weight of the stranger almost insignificant thanks to his grafts. He continued in the direction of the part of the floor not yet explored in the hope of finding another little-used storeroom.

BlueDevil's deactivated cameras, in that case, were definitely providential, allowing him to focus only on some other sudden human presence during his move. He was also lucky in finding the longed-for second storage room, leaving the employee unconscious and better arranging a couple of boxes to cover him out of sheer scruple.

Once he had completed that brief task, he returned to the corridor and advanced in the direction of the stairs also arranged on that side of the level.

In his trained mind, he could begin to keep a more precise mapping of the areas he had already explored and guess certain sections of the structure by his intuition.

The third floor was virtually identical to the fourth, the rooms filled with machinery and small circular cisterns. He couldn't know where the place he needed to go to was, but it was easy to spot when his radar signaled other people about fifty feet from his position.

«McTavish, do you have any suggestions for getting the employees out of that room? Or will I be forced to improvise?»

BlueDevil cleared his throat, a moment of silence before he heard him reply.

« _I believe they are performing a routine check, perhaps programmed automatically by the computers. The problem is that even if you concealed yourself via your cloaking system from their eyes, my remote actions would still show up on their device screens._ »

The other seemed to ponder for a few more moments, while the agent moved silently towards the _target_ , keeping alert and ready to react if necessary.

« _Go into the control room and let me connect anyway. I may have an idea, but I can be sure when I'll be in._ »

The ex-SWAT clenched his jaw slightly, the possibility of detection hovering in his thoughts like a dangerous distraction. He knew how to keep himself relaxed even in a place crowded with _enemies_ , but it wasn't that possibility that worried him so much as the precariousness with which Artair would be forced to act.

Despite his remonstrance and legitimate doubt, he did as he was told, crouching along the left wall to the closed metal door; opening it might arouse suspicion, which is why he decided to activate his smart vision to take a closer look at the environment beyond. Unfortunately, he didn't see any secondary entrances such as the air ducts, at least not in the areas he was able to scan carefully — this control room was considerably larger than the others he had already inspected.

Adam inhaled quickly, activated the glass-shield, and entered the room.

A couple of employees turned to look at the door, but seemed to decide to ignore it as they returned their focus to their work. The ex-SWAT slowly moved to a more sheltered spot, locating the two computers that Selene's uncle needed to access. He waited a couple of seconds before noticing a slight visual glitch on the nearest screen, definitely indicating that the hacker had gotten to work on the console.

What appeared to be a plant check was guided to its completion by the hacker: it was easy for Jensen to notice the surprised reaction of the employees, who gave each other a couple of puzzled looks.

The agent let a small sneer escape when the results displayed on the interactive board along the wall opposite the metal door indicated the presence of some anomaly in some areas of the entire island.

The employees began talking among themselves in Czech, some in a decidedly annoyed tone, others almost excited probably by the prospect of having something else to do. After about ten minutes, only two employees remained in the room, both of whom were busy following and reporting on some of the data on the board.

Aware that he wasn't taking any chances in communicating via infolink, Adam decided to voice a decidedly important thought.

«McTavish, are you sure your activities won't cause some other incident in the water?»

« _Yes, of course_ », he reassured him. « _What I did was quite simple: I issued a dummy command, actually the routine check is still in progress. Are the two computers now available?_ »

Jensen barely nodded, just a primal hint of uncertainty just before answering.

«Yes, but make it quick. There are still two men left in the room, but they are currently busy trying to figure out what happened. I can't stun them because they maintain continuous communication with colleagues outside the facility. Over and out.»

He understood immediately when BlueDevil connected to nearby devices.

It was impossible not to see the radical change of screen as soon as the hacker started working from a distance. The agent had to keep a constant and precise eye on the two _enemy_ presences, on his energy level for the activated graft, and carefully watch the radar to make sure no one was coming from the corridor.

He didn't feel any fatigue or exhaustion, but he could easily detect the way his nerves and reflexes always remained ready to ponder and act. He would be affected a bit by that situation once outside of that environment, but the idea of using a biocell he carried with him and kept along with two others in one of the belt pouches already brought him a slight trickle of relief.

He waited just under another minute before hearing Artair's voice again via the infolink, serious and with a hint of something the agent classified as extreme caution.

« _Done. Get out of there and find a safe place where we can talk quietly. I suggest you go down to the second floor, that level of the facility should be pretty much empty._ »

Adam didn't wait for him to repeat that twice, aware that he didn't need to respond verbally to McTavish, though his intuition suggested that the hacker's subtly apprehensive tone didn't bode well.

He reached the metal door with an ever-silent movement and when he opened it, he glanced behind him to see the two employees of the plant turn towards the source of the noise. He was now about fifty feet away when one of the two strangers appeared from the doorway, even more perplexed by this singular event that had been repeated again.

He continued down the part of the corridor not yet explored by deactivating the cloaking system, the nearest stairs towards that direction.

The identical and almost mirrored environment gave him a primal reaction of impatience, when he finally reached the steps and began to descend, he carefully scanned the first available room and slipped into it with confidence, consuming a biocell in what appeared to be a small study equipped with a desk and a couple of shelves filled with binders.

After a long sigh, invigorated by the feeling of energy, he contacted the hacker. «Artair, I'm listening. What have you found out?»

BlueDevil exhaled deeply, confirming to the ex-SWAT the sensation he had felt a few minutes before.

« _It's not something I spotted on the computers in that control room, but I did get a confirmation to a doubt I've had since you approached the facility, Jensen._ »

The man paused, quite efficiently.

« _I've been tracking a large server signal since you were still outside the building, I think in the parking lot area. I initially thought it was just a disturbance caused by some old satellite dish or outdated equipment in the facility, because some of the equipment isn't that up to date, but it's something else. I located several details and information thanks to a serial code, a sort of digital signature that I had seen before in my research._ »

Adam nodded imperceptibly, listening very carefully and already sensing in advance how that conversation might end.

«I guess I won't like to hear what it's about.»

« _Maybe yes, maybe no_ », replied the other. « _We requested a month ago that Janus provide us with all existing data about the Yakut-Sakha military complex, but I suspect that the leader of the Collective has been doing some research on his own to understand why that facility interests me so much._ »

The agent clenched his jaw, shaking his head. The prospect that was dawning in his thoughts was far worse. He let a surge of nervousness flood over him at the idea.

«Merry Christmas, my _ass_ », he let out in a dry tone. «You think Janus knows about Selene and her past? About her abilities?»

Artair made a deep breath perfectly audible, the question he had just heard decidedly unpleasant even for him.

« _I have no idea, and honestly it worries me. But there's more to it than that. I thought Janus assigned us this mission here in Prague because we're two people whose skills he knows, but I also admit I thought it was a way to repay the favor we asked of him. But the serial code that allowed me to identify the presence of a large server in the facility where you are now, is the same code that allowed me, several months ago, to find a hypothetical trace of the Hymeneal Plan in Russia._ »

McTavish took time for another pause, hinting at an obvious observation.

« _It is what allowed me to locate System 09, the military complex in Verkhoyansk._ »

The ex-SWAT nodded quickly, clenching his fists along his sides to quell that primal flush of suspicion and irritation.

«Now I understand why you think Janus did some researches on his own. He couldn't have gotten there by _chance_. Shit», he finally blurted out.

« _Yeah, shit_ », the hacker emulated him in a less incisive tone, something that weighed down his voice giving him a hint of weariness. « _But besides Janus, do you understand what this means, Adam? In the place you're in now there's something extremely similar to System 09, or at least there's something that uses the same kind of server._ »

BlueDevil silenced again, a slight sigh just before continuing with more words.

« _What the hell did they hide in that place?_ »

Jensen shook his head in a purely personal nod, perfectly aware that he couldn't be visible to anyone.

«I'm about to find out, Artair.»

He closed the communication without waiting for a second longer, checking the radar to make sure he wouldn't find any of the staff in the hallway.

He opened the door and walked through it to resume moving toward the rest of the second floor, fairly certain that possible access to some underground section should be more easily found on the first floor, but he knew he still had to be thorough to leave nothing to chance.

McTavish's words still resonated in his mind, giving him a fair amount of bitterness.

BlueDevil wouldn't hesitate, once the mission was completed, to contact Janus for clarification, and in all sincerity, Adam wanted to be present when the _virtual_ meeting took place.

The ex-SWAT wanted to know if the leader of the Collective was really interested in Selene's _story_ and, in case the answer was positive, why.

He honestly feared he already knew the answer to that question, because it was quite obvious how much the girl would bring, as an agent in the organization, some weight into the activist group, but just as Artair was refractory to the idea of involving his niece in another _war_ , he too understood with bizarre readiness the reasons for hearing the same grievance.

He didn't want to consider the possibility of Selene joining the Collective, it meant putting a big X on her against which the Illuminati would unload a terrible number of blows.

He couldn't let anything happen to her because of Janus and his purposes: this wasn't a war she had to fight in, and the fact that even Artair agreed with that decision gave him a modicum of relief.

It was shocking to see how worried he felt at the mere idea of seeing the young woman involved in that struggle as well. Shocking and cathartic, the certainty that what he felt for her went far beyond simple infatuation.

He returned present to himself in a moment, aware that he had to postpone those ponderations to a better time.

He moved among the offices of that level, always with some attention towards the surveillance cameras. As BlueDevil had already told him, he was able to verify the total absence of guards or personnel on that floor, being able to move around quite undisturbed. He found nothing relevant or really useful, only a multi-tool inside a drawer of a desk. He pondered whether or not to take the small device with him, eventually opting to pocket it in anticipation of a possible need.

When he finally made his way down to the first floor, he noticed a slightly more organized presence of armed security on his radar.

He looked down the flight of stairs, on the mezzanine level, near the reinforced metal and glass railing; at the end of the steps there were two Tarvos employees with their backs to him, the uniforms now familiar to him in a rather annoying way: being able to confirm that detail made him definitely understand how that place wasn’t exactly what it seemed.

He climbed over the railing to land silently in a slightly hidden spot, still bent and continuing toward a more sheltered area, entering a large waiting room left in the half-light.

He tried to orient himself by consulting a small paper board posted on the wall to his left to find the security room in that part of the building: if he allowed Artair to connect to the computer system, it would be much easier to find what they were looking for.

He moved toward the second door of the room, opposite the one he had entered, the radar reporting another human presence about sixty or seventy feet away. With his smart vision, he surveyed the environment beyond the wall, spotting after a few moments the path of an air vent above his head.

If he was lucky, he could find access to that passageway there in the room, actually discovering it on the ceiling, perpendicular to a pair of armchairs. He climbed up onto the soft surface with no problem, perfectly balanced on the backrest as he opened the panel and slipped into the small gap with tested precision. He closed the access behind him and resumed moving.

Through a couple of observation grids, he was able to locate the main entrance, carefully controlled by five other guards inside, while he remembered a few others outside, maybe two or three.

When he finally reached the end of the duct, he inspected the surroundings to make sure he didn't go directly out into an area that was too exposed, again descending through a gap in the ceiling into a conference room, directly onto a medium-sized circular table.

« _Jensen_ », Artair called to him in a relaxed voice, « _if the signal isn't too distorted, continuing in a westerly direction you should reach the security room. I can't be absolutely sure, but I'd say it's about three hundred feet from your position._ »

«Roger that. I get moving again», Adam replied.

Sketchily checking the room, he took a vu-phone from the floor between a chair and the wall behind it; the most _useful_ information he read on the device was a reminder for an official maintenance request regarding a weapons locker in the security room. He left the phone where he had found it and approached the only wooden door, again paying some attention to the radar before opening it, and continuing leaning against the wall in the direction BlueDevil had suggested.

He trigged his thermoptical camouflage to pass under a camera while avoiding two bored Tarvos soldiers talking near a couple of snack machines. He decloaked only when he was sure it was safe to do so, and continued down a wide corridor, with more doors on either side leading to management offices and a couple of rooms filled with filing cabinets, shelves, printers and copiers.

The security room appeared to his right, three guards inside and the door closed by a maglock.

In order not to be distracted by any noise, he decided to use the multi-tool he had providentially took a few minutes earlier. Unlocking the device, he opened the door, hiding again from the eyes of the three people in there, checking not to run into any problems before charging the precise number of TESLA ammo on the strangers. He hid the unconscious bodies in the corner farthest from the entrance, behind an active electrical box that hummed faintly.

Confident that he had been thorough enough, he contacted Artair. «McTavish.»

« _Yes, I'm here. Are you in the security room on the first floor? Can I connect to the computer already?_ », asked the man efficiently.

«Yes, it's all yours», Adam merely replied, checking the radar several times to avoid running into any unwelcome surprises as had happened on the fourth floor.

It didn't take long for the hacker to expose what he was doing, making the ex-SWAT party.

« _I've disabled the cameras on the two levels managed by that location, but I'm not finding anything about the large server I mentioned earlier. There is no way that any information about it is kept on some other device. Have you had a chance to check the whole floor?_ »

Jensen clasped his arms to his chest, bringing a hand to his chin.

«No, there are several armed guards in areas that are too exposed.»

The man took a long look at the screens before him, suddenly seized with an idea when he looked with interest at the portion of the desk in plain view.

«Give me a moment.»

He activated his smart vision to check that there was nothing hidden in the room, calmly looking around and moving close to what was being marked by his synthetic retinas, but only spotting unimportant instruments.

He was almost on the verge of letting out an irritated verse at the situation when he finally became aware of a brighter light source near the wall opposite the computer, where a weapons locker had been installed.

He had ignored it because he had at first recognized the silhouettes of a few rifles beyond the steel door, but when the contents of that vu-phone came back to his mind, he approached with a confident step, deactivating his smart vision.

He looked at it for a few moments, opening it to check the inside and probing with his fingers some shelves to feel for possible points of interest. He recognized a button at the top of the roof and pressed it, moving a few steps away as soon as he saw the cabinet release from the wall with a resounding _click_.

He felt a corner of his lips lift in a nod of relief; he shifted slightly to the side and grasped the edge of the small armory with his hands to slide the locker onto its hinges, finally observing the access to a well-lit hallway.

«McTavish, I found something, a secret passage. I resume moving again.»

« _Really? Where?_ », asked BlueDevil with some curiosity.

«Beyond a weapons locker, there is a hidden button to unlock the hatch», the ex-SWAT informed him.

« _Great, really great_ », Artair commented, letting some smugness show. « _Be careful though, Adam. We don't know what you'll find._ »

«Sure», the agent replied, stepping over the gap and pressing a button on the side of it to return the armory to its original position.

The path in front of him was topped with neon lights, making the environment rather antiseptic, but definitely functional. There were no places for him to take shelter, but the only thing he could see, about fifty feet away, was a metal door protected by a security maglock. In that case, he was forced to bypass it himself, devoting just a couple of minutes to the action and without even triggering the IT tracking system.

The door opened revealing another wider corridor that after about fifteen feet ended with an elevator.

He moved with a calm and careful step towards the sliding doors of chrome metal, pressing the button on the side; he waited a few seconds and once inside he selected the only available floor from the small interactive panel, immediately feeling the sensation caused by the descent and the noise of the gears five feet higher.

What he hadn't foreseen was the presence of several blue security lasers that filled the small space he was in, exactly like the ones at TF29: he couldn't hide in any way and the first thing he recognized was the persistent and continuous sound of an alarm.

«Shit», he let slip that loudly.

« _Adam, what's going on?_ », asked Artair, concerned.

The ex-SWAT had no control over the grimace of disappointment that was printed on his face, partly catching sight of his figure in the reflection cast by the chrome walls of the small space.

«There was a security grid that I couldn't avoid, the alarm went off.»

The elevator continued its movement until it was probably stopped by an external blockage, but the slight recoil that made it start again soon after didn’t affect the agent's balance in the least.

He knew he had to act and think of some solution, looking around and lifting his head on the near ceiling, spotting the hatch above him. He wasted no further time, stepping out into the concrete and steel cable shaft and closing the passage just before the elevator came to a complete stop, recognizing the sound of the sliding doors and hearing excited voices invading the confined environment he had just left.

He was aware that he couldn't stay any longer, he knew that the guards would also check where he had taken shelter at that moment.

One of the four walls by which he was surrounded had an internal ladder carved directly into there; he began to climb it without waiting for a second longer, arriving near a ventilation duct when someone below him, about twenty feet from his position, told him to halt with an authoritative voice.

«Hey, you! Stop right there!»

He cast a quick glance at the Tarvos soldier who was leaning halfway out of the elevator door, the assault rifle in one hand pointed in his direction in an unsafe grip as his other fingers were busy on the edge of the opening below to keep his balance.

He barely had time to squeeze through the small passageway before he heard gunshots fired at him — and he had to admit that, at least in that circumstance, he had had a little luck because of the poor aim with which that guard had been forced to improvise.

« _Adam, fill me in_ », Artair said, his tone overtly concerned.

Jensen moved through the small steel tunnel fairly quickly despite his size, his concentration making him more agile than his grafts could.

«I managed to get away from the elevator by exiting through the panel on the ceiling, and reached an air vent. The problem was that a guard saw me anyway.»

BlueDevil took a few moments before responding, and the ex-SWAT understood that his silence was probably because he was working with renewed vigor on his computer.

« _You're about five levels underground, but I can't map it out via your infolink signal. Shit, tell me you didn't go down there without knowing if you'll have a way to find another exit later._ »

The agent was sure he would sneer at seeing the contrite expression on Selene's uncle's face, but a part of himself was just as troubled by that prospect.

«I don't need to leave anytime soon.»

« _Jensen!_ », the other exclaimed, his tone divided between disbelief and anxiety, with that slight hint of reproach that he didn't think he'd hear from Artair.

«Let's focus on the mission target and after that let's figure out how to get me out of here», Adam finally added, reaching for the conduit door that indicated the end of the passage.

After taking advantage of the smart vision and giving the radar a thorough check, he lifted the metal grille to access a server room directly from one wall, with data towers taller than him and a few screens directly recessed between the various instruments. The one metal door led to a glass-walled chamber, _windows_ looking out onto a wide hallway that vaguely reminded him of the environment he had already seen in Palisade's Blade 01, in the office area.

It was probably the same architectural style, with desks, shelves, and swivel chairs, but he highly doubted that place was used for the same reason.

He used the remote hacking on the other side of the room so as not to risk exposing himself too much, obscuring the glass, and eventually observing and acknowledging other consoles and computer stations more calmly.

BlueDevil answered his question before Jensen could even put it to him.

« _Okay, I'm giving myself some more specific and less secure access. They may be able to identify your location if they haven't already accounted for the vent path you tapped into._ »

«Do what you have to», Adam reassured him in a firm voice, still remaining concealed beyond a desk, waiting for what seemed like endless minutes. «If any guards come, I'll take care of it.»

When the only other door leading out of that office opened, his radar had already alerted him to the presence of four soldiers.

«Move between stations, he's still in here», said one of the men, an FR-27 S.F.W. in his hands already ready to fire.

The agent activated the glass-shield and leaned out from his cover, tracking the men's movements to get them all in the same line of fire at the right time.

He stretched out his left arm to take advantage of the necessary number of TESLA ammo, watching the four guards stand paralyzed in that spasmodic tremor for a few moments, the faint choked verses coming to his ears like guttural cries, only to see them fall unsteadily to the floor, three behind some desks and only one in the middle of the small space between stations, a few feet from him.

He moved closer to the closed opening of the sliding door, continuing to leave the thermoptical camouflage active. With his smart vision, a hint of apprehension licking his stomach, he recognized several turrets on the ceiling of the wide corridor outside in search mode.

He used another biocell to recharge his energy and felt much more ready to face whatever situation he was about to overcome.

« _Adam_ », Artair called back to him in a slightly calmer tone, « _I've unlocked a couple of useful access points nearby. Unfortunately, from the room you're in I can't disable the security systems, but at least I know where you need to go. The large server I've identified is one floor down, reached by stairs. I send you the coordinates._ »

«Alright, I resume moving», Jensen affirmed.

He exited the room in a second to begin following the route sent to his radar system.

From what he could see with his own eyes and based on what McTavish had told him, he could ignore the rest of the floor to get directly to the relevant area, finding the steps down past a small corridor between two management offices as the guards moved alertly around him heedless of his presence.

Exploiting his graft for so long required some effort, but as long as he moved slowly, taking advantage of any shelters, he would go completely unnoticed. He passed the staircase arriving at a gap opened by a large vertical door, entering the first available room to move a little more calmly.

He decloaked for some minutes, just enough time to allow the energy converter to recharge itself; he glanced at the technology lab he was in, a now-familiar environment to which he could only glance so as not to leave anything to chance — a habit learned over the years as a cop.

An alarm bell immediately went off in his mind when he recognized, laid out on a work table, a blue paper model of the turret that had been activated at the Versalife facility in Hradec Králové.

He knew that the ones he had seen and avoided on the upper level were normal security systems, but he wondered why the design of that weapon was there.

Continuing in line with the desks he could see other paper developments, all based on the same matrix, a classic stylized DNA strand, and a specific alphanumeric code shown in each _title_ , but the technical drawings also showed sentinels and drones.

«McTavish, I found something you probably won't like.»

Adam explained in detail, albeit rather quickly, what he had just discovered, leaving nothing out.

« _Fuck_ », BlueDevil cursed, « _I'll understand more as soon as you're in the main server room. I'll probably find what we need there._ »

Jensen resumed moving instantly, exiting the door after triggering his cloaking system and continuing in the direction indicated by the radar. When he was nearing his destination, he noticed a massive number of people inside the room and with the help of his smart vision he identified them as armed guards.

It was definitely obvious that they were going to be manning that room, but he couldn't back down now.

He opened the metal door and with the Icarus Dash, automatically deactivating the glass-shield, he knocked out three guards, gaining precious seconds to act. When he let himself be covered by the TITAN, he knew he had to be fast and precise, adapting to a much more brutal and exposed approach, but he was still surprised to notice what the Tarvos guards were holding: they were armed with pulse rifles and tranquilizer guns, which meant that they didn't _want_ to use firearms in that place.

«Shit! Shit! He's augmented!», yelled someone.

He stunned four more guards with TESLA ammo, then leaped up next to two more men and hit them with a PREP shot, hurling them away. He sprinted back to a third man closer, stunning him with a punch in the face and pushing a fourth man toward a colleague behind him.

«Grenade!»

He took advantage of the Focus Enhancement to give his reflexes more time and hit in mid-air with the PREP the flashbang that had just been thrown at him, one corner of his lips raised in a grin when he knew that he wouldn't be affected by the glow produced by the explosion, unlike of those who moaned instantly, blinded.

He moved lightning fast to three more enemies, knocking them out in a few moves and aiming his left hand again at four more men, the electrical discharges of TESLA ammo doing their job.

Seven more Tarvos soldiers remained, and it suddenly became clear to him how to render them harmless in a matter of moments without compromising the contents of that room. He leaped to the center of the server room, placed himself in the middle of the enemies, rolled slightly on himself with his torso and released the Typhoon set on gas ammunition into the room.

The silence anticipated by the brief coughs and sonorous moans of those last soldiers gave him the gift of greater and more familiar concentration. The adrenaline coursing through his body had once again granted him incredible speed, making him all too prepared to take on several men at once.

The knowledge that he could do what he had just done for the rest of his life was always there in those moments when he could watch his now _defeated_ enemies.

Out of simple scruples and some form of moral principle, he preferred not to kill if he had the chance, but he was certain that under some circumstances he couldn't avoid it. There had been many in the past that had led him to get blood on his hands, both before and after the augmentations, and every time, especially the _first times_ , his conscience had torn him apart.

He didn't want it to be too easy for him to kill someone, he didn't want to become more monstrous than he already was in outward appearance. And deep down he knew it, he _knew_ that somewhere inside him there had always been that darkness that did everything it could to come out.

It was in that moment of calm, after taking a deep breath, that he heard a pair of shaky footsteps behind him, coming from the newly opened sliding door he had entered a few minutes earlier. He turned around to see a facility employee standing before him with a strange _gun_ in his hands, the weapon held in a trembling grip, along with the expression of absolute terror painted on his face.

Adam had time to advance toward him with the Icarus Dash and stun him with his simple movement, letting the man slide across the floor several feet away. He watched him fall with a hint of astonishment, bowing his face further until he saw what looked like a dart lodged in his abdomen. It was directly underneath the reinforced part of his combat armor, near his left hip, and only because of that sudden realization did he also feel a bizarre sensation of pressure in his belly.

As if in a sort of _déjà-vu_ , he pulled out the tip without further delay, feeling a simple tingling sensation. He looked carefully at the dart, studying its cylindrical shape that made up the central body, which must have contained who knows what liquid substance, and a simple printed plaque bearing an alphanumeric identification code, while the needle clearly showed residues of blood — his blood.

He dropped the whole thing on the floor without paying any further attention to it, certain that the Sentinel System was already at work to dispose of the probable dose of tranquilizer that that employee had administered to him without any success.

«McTavish», he said.

A sigh of relief came directly to his ears, causing him to legitimately smile at knowing the hacker absurdly worried about him.

« _Christ, Jensen. Have you been busy?_ »

«I'm in the main server room. Can you access the console?», the agent made, ignoring the comment to focus on the mission.

« _I've been facing the IT security system since you came in, give me a few more minutes._ »

A brief pause allowed Adam to approach the screens, carefully avoiding stepping on the unconscious bodies of the Tarvos guards and keeping an eye on the radar to make sure he didn't find himself surprised by other enemies.

Artair resumed speaking when the ex-SWAT was now busy trying to understand something from what he could see from the computer stations.

« _Okay, I'm on it. I'm downloading everything we need. At first glance, I'd say they're using that place to manufacture weapons, but there's definitely more to it than that. I'm summarily analyzing a digital report from last August, and what you discovered in September was caused by the spill, toxic waste generated by the underground facility you're in now._ »

The agent breathed a little harder, his chest and shoulders rising in response to that gesture, glancing at the door to check that no one was coming at that moment. He shook his face as he returned to staring at the screens, tilting his head slightly, only then noticing the bizarre need to inhale much more deeply.

« _Hey... Hey, Jensen. Did you hear me?_ », BlueDevil called to him in a subtly surprised voice.

«What?», the agent asked, trying to regain focus.

He didn't immediately feel his body stagger, it was only when he found himself leaning against the nearby desk that he realized something was wrong.

« _Adam, what's going on?_ »

«Artair...», he murmured.

He shook his head again, squinting from behind his shields and bringing a hand to his mouth to suppress a primal urge to vomit — it had been years since he had felt such an ache.

«I think... I think...»

With a strange and new effort, he managed to turn around to look at the floor a few feet from the entrance to the server room, trying to locate next to the employee he had stunned last the dart he had pulled out from his body a few minutes earlier.

«Shit... I think they poisoned me...»

« _What?!_ »

The hacker's alarmed voice boomed in his head, giving him an even stronger and fiercer hint of nausea, accompanied by sudden vertigo.

Jensen shuffled over to the empty cartridge, retrieving it to read the label, but was completely unable to stand up straight and still to perform that simple action: it was such an obvious physical response that he couldn't help but be considerably alarmed. Aware that he had few other options, he decided to store the dart in one of the pouches on his belt.

If he had indeed been poisoned, carrying a sample of the substance he had been exposed to would undoubtedly improve the situation — or at least he hoped it would, legitimately concerned that the Sentinel System wasn’t responding adequately to that _crisis_.

« _Adam, I'm done! Get out of there! More soldiers are coming!_ »

McTavish's voice resounded in his head with painful and unpleasant pressure, causing him for a few seconds momentary blindness. He shook his face again to recover a minimum of concentration, resuming his pace at first with imprecise movements, then regaining a minimum of strength and returning to move with some attention. He swallowed a couple of times, leaning against the wall just outside the room.

«Artair, I need to stop for a moment. Guide me to where I can find shelter for a few minutes.»

BlueDevil delayed in responding for a couple of seconds, his tone overtly apprehensive and surprised by that admission — Adam Jensen needing a hiding place in enemy camp didn't bode well at all.

« _To the left of the server room door, continue down the hallway to the end of it. You'll find an office on the left with an air duct that widens into a maintenance area._ »

The ex-SWAT moved with some difficulty, a nagging pressure in his chest and a vague sense of confusion in his mind made him thankfully hasty anyway, as he slipped into the room with a shove just before the Tarvos soldiers rounded the corner a few feet from the room he had just left.

He looked for the hatch of the passage, finding it on top of a filing cabinet: getting on it seemed to cost him some effort, but he finally succeeded, slipping into the small steel tunnel and making sure to close it behind him.

He had to stop for a deep breath, shaking his head again, crawling forward for about thirty feet before reaching the widening McTavish had mentioned, concrete walls all around him, along with pipes and cables covered with insulation material.

«I'm here...», he murmured moving a little towards the wall, leaning his back for support.

« _Adam, now explain to me what I can do_ », said Artair trying to maintain an ephemeral lucidity. « _Adam!_ »

Jensen deactivated his shields for a moment, his eyes still closed due to the impossible weariness that seemed to have seized him, along with the oblivion of senses over which he could no longer have any control.

« _Adam! ADAM!_ »

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, a fun cliffhanger to end this chapter that I hope was received with the connotations I wanted to give it: a Deus Ex-style mission so I don't forget what fandom I'm in.  
> Okay, it's nice to write about Adam and Selene's day-to-day and their feelings, but it wouldn't be Deus Ex without some action.  
> I hope it entertained and amused you as much as it did me in the writing process.  
> As a reminder, I won't always be able to post within three weeks, most of the time it will definitely be more likely to take a month or more.  
> Thank you for your continued support and interest in this story.  
> And thanks to Deus Ex and Adam Jensen for making me want to write again.  
> Spam corner: in the dedicated blog on Tumblr [Deus Ex War Paint](https://deusexwarpaint.tumblr.com/) I've created the character sheets of Selene and Artair, with several informations and curiosities that in the course of the story are not easy to include. The only problem is that you'd better open the blog via pc, because on the mobile app you'd have to manually search for their sheets. Doable, but tedious, in my opinion.  
> Thanks again! ;)  
> 


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene rushes to Adam's aid without a second thought.

[Without You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYrnptSa1AM)

Selene and Vaclav were engaged in a rather heated match of a soccer video game when her vu-phone rang, left on the dining table. She and the boy had had dinner together in the bookstore, closed an hour earlier than usual, and then spent the rest of the evening at the young woman's flat, watching a couple of movies or distracting themselves with controllers in their hands, sitting on the couch.

Koller had guessed, without even hearing it, how much the girl had every intention of staying awake until she received news from her uncle about the mission Artair and Jensen were on.

The doctor wasn't hesitating for a moment to keep her company so as not to leave her alone, and she felt deeply grateful for the boy's behavior.

By now he had begun to move around her apartment with much more ease, opening the fridge to get a drink, or poking around in the cupboard to retrieve two cookies from a classic glass jar.

There had also been a moment, during the first few minutes just after midnight, when Vaclav had gone to the bathroom to urinate, wash his robotic hands as was his routine, and finally noticed with some amazement a green toothbrush left on the edge of the sink, not far from the glass in which she held her red one.

He had returned to the main room with that _foreign_ object between his fingers, a sly smile on his lips and a mischievous brown gaze.

Selene had tried without much conviction not to answer the doctor's curiosity, but in the end, she had given in, summarily recounting a few other details of the movie night that she had deliberately kept to herself — yes, she could confirm that Adam had slept over, suggesting that only he had spent the night on the couch, but she managed to avoid dwelling on all those moments in which there had been episodes of unexpected tenderness between her and the ex-SWAT.

The lightness and quietness she felt overwhelmed by made her spend those hours with her mind a little more serene, even if she couldn't physically stop keeping an eye on her phone and checking much more often than usual what time it was. It was for that reason that she immediately paused the video game when she heard the device's ringtone, getting up from the couch accompanied by Koller's sonorous complaints as he slumped against the backrest in disappointment.

She read Artair's name on the display and answered in a calm, cheerful tone. «Hey, uncle. Merry Chri-...»

« _Selene, hurry up, you must help me!_ », the relative on the other end of the line abruptly interrupted her. « _You must help Adam!_ »

The rest of the words she'd heard repeated incessantly in her head, both as she moved into the bedroom to put on her combat suit in the space of just five minutes, over the black shirt and light sweatpants she already had on, and as she informed Koller of what was going on, retrieving the faux-leather jacket out of simple habit and her vu-phone to call BlueDevil again when she'd be out of her apartment.

«You can stay here if you want, Vaclav.»

The boy denied vigorously with his head, ready to go out in turn with Selene.

«No, I'm going back to my lab and wait for your updates», he told her in a calm tone, showing himself incredibly and unsuspectedly prepared. «If Jensen has been injured, he will need my help as well», he finally concluded, walking with her towards the front door.

The two parted as soon as they reached the doorway of the apartment building, the doctor intent on getting to the nearby subway station, while the girl, vu-phone already in hand, contacted Artair and made her way to his home.

«I'm on my way. Are you in the car already?»

« _Yes, I'll wait for you. Be quick_ », the other recommended to her.

She didn't need to hear that.

She held the device between her fingers so as not to waste time during the short walk to her relative's house; she spotted the lights of the car already on and slipped into the passenger compartment, taking her place on the seat without waiting for directions, only then placing her phone in her jacket pocket.

BlueDevil started driving with a faint wheel spin, pointing to the dashboard compartment with his right hand.

«Open it up and take what's inside. You have just twenty minutes to memorize as much information as you can about where you have to go, but once you're there I'll guide you as well», he informed her without even turning a glance at her.

He was fully aware that he didn't need to make sure she was listening to him.

«Wear the transmitter and don’t remove it for any reason, Selene. Never! I want to be in perpetual contact with you, no matter what.»

The man paused, tilting his face in a thoughtful nod.

«There may be security systems that recognize your genetic code; unfortunately, Jensen couldn't tell me more and the data I downloaded while he was there is still being scanned.»

The young woman quickly tied her purple hair into a high ponytail, then rolled it into the usual tight bun at the top of her nape; she put on her earpiece but obviously kept it still off, arranging the portion of her robe to be placed around her face to make the action of covering her head later faster.

«Explain more about what happened», she suggested anyway.

Artair visibly denied it, a clear gesture of frustration as an immediate response to that question, clasping his hands on the steering wheel, driving carefully but exceeding the speed limit at various times.

«The central wastewater treatment plant was rebuilt from the ground up after 2017, and underneath it, there are two hidden levels where someone appears to be making weapons, including ones that exploit the matrix to detect a possible genetic code.»

He paused to look at his niece for a moment, finding her with her face downcast on the holographic drawing she was studying at that moment from the small electronic device retrieved from the dashboard.

«Adam managed to access that secret area via an elevator, but was discovered by a laser security grid set up along the shaft of the same, so impossible to avoid. Once the alarm went off, the guards tightened their search, but he still managed to get to the main server room that we were interested in. During the confrontation with some soldiers, he was injured, or maybe they poisoned him.»

The hacker moved his face in a nod of denial, his eyebrows curved into a worried expression.

«When I called you, he already hadn't answered for about fifteen minutes.»

It was at that moment that she stared at him, her blue eyes apprehensive and her lips straight in a serious, careful line. «So it's been... it's been over half an hour since you've heard from him?»

Her voice was a stinger of worry and fear, emotions so visible on her juvenile face that Artair was surprised by their intensity.

It was amazing to see Selene so concerned about someone other than Damian. And it was a symptom of something unexpected, something he himself was trying so hard to ignore.

«Stay calm. Before I lost contact with him, Jensen hid in a maintenance area accessible only by an air vent, and he'll definitely still be there.»

«How long does it take to get there?», she asked, going back to studying the map and carefully reading other important information from the small screen.

The man refocused on the road he was on, spotting some useful signage for their destination.

«I guess it's about five minutes to Plavební Kanál, from there you will then have to move on foot. I'll drop you off near the bridge closest to the entrance to the facility, so be prepared to meet some armed guards when you get there.»

BlueDevil cast a glance at the still-open dashboard, pointing at it again.

«Take those two hypostims with you too, maybe Adam will need them. And the multi-tool will come in handy for you.»

The girl stored the two medical items in compartments in the part of the dress corresponding to the waist, and attached the other item to a buckle at groin level, on the right hip.

She took one last firm look at the holographic map and placed the device in the compartment, quickly closing it and shedding her jacket so she could be ready to get out of the car when the time came. She threw her jacket on the back seat, noticing Adam's coat on it next to a duffel bag probably containing Artair's laptop.

She watched the ex-SWAT's garment for a few more moments before letting a faint sigh escape and returning to staring at the road ahead of the car.

It was so surreal to be in that situation, knowing that she was suddenly indispensable to the survival of the ex-SWAT gave her a fierce feeling of anxiety.

Comparing her to him, it had always been Jensen who had led the action, it had always been him who had shown himself to be ready, prepared, professional, confident, strong, a fixed point in all that frantic chaos. Knowing that he was in danger, probably injured, deeply discouraged her. And it scared her to death.

She didn't want to imagine the worst, but something in her mind, that hidden hope she'd seen crumble when her parents had died, threatened to drag her into engulfing despair. She didn't want to believe that the last words she'd exchanged with Adam were the ones she'd said at the Time Machine, didn't want to even think about it.

She couldn't find herself so close to him just over twelve hours earlier, only to have to _face_ the agony of another loss. Just imagining it devastated her.

«Selene.»

Her uncle's voice turned out to be calmer than expected, but the young woman could easily hear the note of apprehension that weighed it down, even though she knew full well how much he was trying to reassure her.

«I know the only thing you're thinking about right now is helping Adam, but please, _please_ ,don't act rashly.»

The niece looked at him, finding him always busy driving carefully: she was perfectly capable of recognizing his expression even in profile, understanding how difficult it must have been for her relative to involve her in that situation, how _divided_ Artair must have felt by the brutal prospect of sending her to face a dangerous situation in which Jensen himself was risking his life.

By no means could she allow herself to be overwhelmed by impulsiveness, and as she had silently promised the agent when he returned from his mission with TF29, she wouldn’t let her instincts lead her solely.

«I'll do what I can to avoid getting hurt, uncle. I will be careful.»

But she couldn't swear that everything would turn out for the best, couldn't really believe the hateful lie they both already knew.

The truth was that Selene would do anything to help and save Adam.

The ride ended inside an unattended truck park. Artair turned off the car a few feet from a decent-sized rectangular shed that hid the Vltava River from their position. The area was lit by a single streetlight on the left, in the direction the girl was supposed to be heading, but the car was fairly protected by a truck that had been left there who knows how long ago.

Selene unbuckled her seatbelt and took one last look at her relative before covering her hair, forehead, and part of her face with the elastic fabric of her suit, finally doing the same with her hands.

BlueDevil scrutinized her the whole time, his brows furrowed and his forehead crossed with wrinkles of weariness and awe. He continued to watch her even when she had finished that brief _ritual_ of preparation, his brown eyes, warm and intense, filled by the same feelings that weighed down his features, while his honey-colored hair had been pulled back several times by his fingers, a thin layer of slightly darker beard sharpening the line of his face.

The hacker allowed himself a deep breath, an unsuspected self-control he didn't think he had — because the strongest impulse he could feel at that moment, to be torn by, was to prevent his niece from undertaking that _rescue mission_.

Selene waited, once again sure of what her uncle was feeling. She watched him nod silently, giving her permission to go, and she didn't ask twice, getting out of the car with disarming speed and closing the door with a rapid gesture.

She passed the truck on the left from the side closest to the shed, and only when she was next to the streetlight, she turned on the earpiece, giving the transmitter time to activate and find the connection with the one his relative was wearing. At the entrance to the bridge, she contacted BlueDevil simply to reassure him.

«I'm about to access the island.»

« _I know, I'm already following you. I'm with you_ », those last words spoken with such heartfelt transport that she knew just how much Artair truly believed in them, giving her unhoped-for confidence.

The girl leaned forward slightly to try to be less visible, but as soon as she spotted them, she knew she would have to get past the two-armed guards to continue.

The two Tarvos soldiers were busy in an argument and saw her approaching only when she was about ten feet away from them, a space short enough to allow her to snap at them and attack them with a rapid sequence of hits, knocking them unconscious in a few seconds.

Once over the bridge, she remembered well that she had to move to the right, going down some steps that would bring her close to an industrial building and, immediately after it, to a parking lot protected by a fence. She climbed over the obstacle with ease and waited a moment to consider how to move, being able to observe the main entrance of the plant from a long distance.

The mere idea that somewhere underneath that place was Adam, unconscious and possibly injured, made her insides twist with eagerness and fear. She shook her head in a nod, aware that her expression was more gloomy than usual, but extremely grateful to be alone and with her face almost completely covered.

She was almost determined to take the route Artair had marked for her on the holographic map, probably with the intent of emulating the same sort of approach the agent had taken in the first part of the mission, but in her mind, that idea ultimately sounded like a waste of time.

With a grunt generated in the back of her throat, she changed direction and walked briskly toward the main gate.

« _Selene_ », her uncle called her, probably noticing the obvious shift in his niece's signal. « _Shit, Selene. No!_ »

She didn't even answer, moving down close to the cars and reaching the clearing in front of the security guard a few minutes later. She sprinted towards the three guards there, two closers to her position and the third a little further back. She was too fast for their eyes, practically impossible to see until she found herself among the Tarvos men, attacking the first two with extreme precision and reaching the third one near the big gate, grabbing him by the neck and blocking his arm that held the weapon.

«Let me in», she said without hesitation, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric of her suit.

The man brought his free fingers around her hand gripping his throat, letting a few choked noises escape. «Screw you...»

At that word, the young woman twisted his arm in a simple move: the assault rifle fell to the ground and a low cry went through the air. The soldier showed all the pain he felt in a traumatized expression, rivulets of sweat running down his dark hair and streaking his bloodless cheeks.

«Let. Me. In», Selene hissed in a barely lower voice, punctuating the words well to give more emphasis to the request.

After a faint guttural verse, the man shook his face, resigned. «Zero, four, five, one.»

The girl listened intently, nodding in agreement and reaching the guardhouse carrying the soldier, letting his feet rest badly on the asphalt to make him walk but only changing the position of the hand that was blocking him, from his throat to the back of his neck.

«If you gave me the wrong code, I'm going to break this arm for good.»

She typed in the number sequence on the keyboard of the console set up in that small space, and when she saw the light above the door change from red to green, she knew she hadn't been tricked. She simply stunned the guard with a punch to the face and resumed moving toward the entrance.

«I'm coming in», she communicated in a firm voice, certain that Artair would object.

« _From the front door?_ », the hacker made in an exasperated tone. « _Hell, Selene, I asked you not to act rashly._ »

The young woman sneered just under the fabric, approaching the doorway with a quick step.

«Trust me, they're definitely not expecting someone to break in from here, not least because I suspect the guards inside are still busy looking for Adam.»

Thinking about him made her stomach twist again, giving her a vague feeling of emptiness in the center of her chest that forced her to think about what would happen if she was too late.

She chased that thought away with a nod of her head and opened the door a little, about five inches, just to take a look inside: the room was very similar to other places she had already seen, large and carefully organized, with linoleum floor of light shade and ceilings to which were hooked neon lamps.

She spotted two Tarvos soldiers closer to her position, then saw a third and a fourth in front of the entrances to some corridors; a fifth man appeared from the left, from the doorway of an open room, saw him walking with careful steps towards the vast space of the entrance, then turned in the direction from which he had come and resumed his walk probably following the path of his patrol.

Selene inhaled deeply before opening the door fully and sprinting towards the two easiest-to-reach strangers; she stunned them quickly and smoothly, aware that she had drawn the attention of the more distant guards, who hesitated for precious seconds before opening fire.

They unintentionally gave her enough time to run into the room to her right, slipping nimbly under a table and kicking it backward toward the door to momentarily block her pursuers' passage. She sprinted back to her feet and reached the wall, hooking herself between a support column and a shelf full of books, finding support to hide near the ceiling, remaining almost perpendicular to the floor.

She distinctly heard the steady, loud noise of the sound alarm that had just been activated: so much the better, perhaps drawing attention to that level of the building would draw possible enemies away from Adam's position.

The three remaining soldiers entered the room after climbing over the overturned desk, looking around alarmed.

«Where did he go? There's no other way out», one of them made, leaving no doubt that they had mistaken her for a man because of her suit.

The girl waited until she had at least one of the enemies perfectly under her, watching the cautious and scrupulous way they began to move around the room to check every space between desks. She released her grip at just the right moment and landed directly on the nearest one, causing him to bump his head on the floor. The noise she made attracted the attention of the other two, but the confined space gave her the chance to move with her usual speed and reach them immediately, hitting the second one in the face and kicking the third one in the abdomen.

«I got rid of the soldiers at the entrance. Where should I go?», she asked.

She returned near the door and checked to make sure there was no one else approaching, standing with her back against the wall just inches from the overturned desk.

« _Give me a moment_ », Artair replied in a serious tone.

He was probably too worried about the idea that his niece was acting practically like a _battering ram_ , sporadically losing the lucidity necessary to follow and guide her promptly.

« _You need to continue in a westerly direction, relative to the entrance you need to go left. There's a corridor that will lead you to a section of that level with offices and conference rooms, but you'll have to pass them to get to a control room._ »

«Roger that», the niece replied, without waiting further.

She was back in the hall a few seconds later, walking briskly toward the only opening on the left that she could see from that position.

She barely had time to walk a few feet before she saw a soldier walking from a side room, his gun pointed at her. The man fired, but the young woman bent down fast enough to avoid the bullet just by a whisker.

She ran toward the target in a slide and hit him in the knee with a kick, a resounding _crack_ invading her hearing, followed by a horrifying scream. She knocked the guard unconscious with an accurate blow from the boot lowered against the man's face, finally rising to her feet to resume moving, retrieving the gun just abandoned on the ground. She checked the magazine and made sure she had the round in the chamber, continuing in the direction her uncle reported to her.

She turned a corner with her weapon drawn, seeing in the corridor a large number of guards, arranged about one hundred feet from her, also armed with assault rifles and machine guns. With a lightning-fast movement, she slipped into the first room at her disposal, a small refreshment area where she found two other soldiers waiting for her.

Her abilities had always given her the gift of being able to choose how to face enemies, and as much as she felt frightened by the idea of being too late to reach Adam in time, her conscience couldn't be silenced.

She shot one of them point-blank in the shoulder and quickly bent down to fire another harmless shot at the second one's leg, gaining precious seconds to get even closer and render them unconscious with a couple of punches.

She heard footsteps in the hallway that anticipated the arrival of the men she saw earlier, quick enough to assess which direction to go in so as not to come under fire. She resumed moving toward the rest of the room, stepping through a wooden door that led to a small bathroom, closing the door behind her to buy time.

With a verse of disappointment, she found the only way through a sealed ventilation shaft: she looked at the layer of metal covering it for a moment, shaking her head when she realized she had to unhinge it.

She stowed the pistol in the designated compartment on the side of her right thigh, a decidedly functional hidden holster carved out of fabric, and grabbed the edge of the plate, pulling it with more ease than expected. At the same moment, someone began firing a continuous barrage of bullets at the door, but the young woman kept her concentration and continued to pull, clearing her way after a few seconds and slipping into the passage with a mellifluous movement.

When she was far enough away, she heard more gunshots fired directly into the small tunnel, but she had moved too fast to give those men time to guess her position.

She still had to place some caution as she prepared to contact BlueDevil, aware that she was risking being overheard. «Am I moving in the right direction?»

The relative hesitated for a few seconds before answering, giving her an idea of him definitely checking the laptop on which he was following the signal from her earpiece.

« _Where are you?_ »

«In a vent», she replied without stopping moving forward, certain that she would find a place to get out of it sooner or later.

She was certain that he was finally relaxing just enough to never lose focus again.

« _You need to try to get back into the hallway, you're moving back to the central area of the first floor_ », Artair warned her in a slightly firmer voice.

Selene shook her head for a moment, huffing. She reached an observation grid, looking through it to see a room full of shelves and desks, a few chairs arranged here and there.

She leaned her back against the steel wall behind her and with her feet kicked away the portion of the duct she was interested in. She slid out of the passage a few seconds later and walked to the door, the gun held between both hands.

She slowly opened the door and checked the environment beyond it, finding an empty hallway and a few more doors nearby. After another breath, she moved quickly to the right.

«Am I going in the right direction?», she asked again.

Artair was silent for a few moments, his tone now much more confident. « _Yes, if the signal is accurate you should find a conference room to your left with an exit on the opposite side. Cross the room and continue down the corridor you'll find in front of you._ »

Once she had heard her relative's reply, Selene recognized the room he had just described. Still with the weapon in her hand, pointed in front of her and ready to fire if necessary, she passed the room and the door just mentioned, still walking briskly towards the corridor, covering it for about one hundred feet before reaching an opening area containing a couple of vending machines with snacks and cans.

She quickly passed other doors leading to management offices and a couple of rooms filled with filing cabinets, shelves, printers and copiers. She turned the corner of the hallway and found two Tarvos men patrolling about thirty feet away, in front of a door on the left, on the side from her position.

They hadn't seen her yet, which gave her time to consider her next move. She reholstered her gun, exhaled quickly, and finally ran towards them. She struck them in a few moves, bending down to dodge one's attempt to attack her with the butt of a rifle and delivering a backhand to his jaw.

As they slid against the wall now unconscious, Selene took a few seconds to check that she wasn't being reached by other guards, sharpening her hearing and looking often to either side of the hallway.

She cast a glance at the metal door a few paces away, recognizing the Czech writing that indicated the floor control room. She immediately recalled some of the information she had read on the device in her uncle's car and prepared to enter. The maglock on the side indicated that the door was open, and for that very reason, she decided to lean against the wall as she activated the control for the retractable mechanism.

She ducked almost to the floor when several bullets shot toward the door, the vigorous gunfire completely replacing the silence of moments before. She waited until she heard a couple of empty _clicks_ to guess the right moment to attack in turn, though she considered for a second how to act without risking being hit.

Exposing herself from the gap would have made her an easy target to the soldiers inside the room, especially since she didn't assume that any of the Tarvos men hadn't fired at all and were instead waiting to see her protrude while the others reloaded their weapons.

She inhaled and exhaled deeply a single time, regaining that familiar concentration, that innate ability to probe and sense the presence of any people nearby: she counted four in total on the far side of the door, finally looking for something to distract them. She found the neon lamps sizzling vigorously on the ceiling, a sound so faint and inaudible, yet frighteningly loud in her mind.

All she had to do was lift one corner of her lips in a sneer protected by her suit, rising into a better position to snap as soon as she blasted the lights beyond the wall behind her.

The surprised and terrified verses of the guards easily guided her into the faint darkness barely illuminated by the lit screens of the computer stations. A few of them even managed to fire a couple of wild shots, but it was incredibly easy for her to aim during those quick steps to shoot straight at the rifle with her pistol to disarm that enemy.

Moving with proven efficiency, she stunned those enemies without further delay: she landed a punch on the sternum of the nearest soldier, then moved with a rapid shift and grabbed the arm of the second one to send him against the wall, making him hit the back of his head on the wall; finally, she faced the last two, handled with such a fierce sequence that they crashed against each other in guttural and discombobulated gasps.

Selene stood waiting for a few seconds, listening, paying attention to any outside noise she might hear beyond the sliding door of the room. She stood up calmly, a deep breath just before looking around with due caution.

«Uncle, I'm in the first-floor control room.»

Artair sighed audibly, probably left listening for any noise generated by the brief fight that had just ended.

« _Okay, Adam has notified me of the presence of a secret passage in that room, beyond a weapons locker. Look inside for a button to unlock it._ »

She immediately spotted the reinforced metal shelf with the door sliding upward, approaching it without hesitation and avoiding the unconscious bodies. She opened the cabinet and started to feel it with her fingers on every useful point, finally finding the button on the top; she immediately pressed it and accompanied the movement of the armory as soon as it moved away from the wall with a _click_.

She cast a careful glance at the contents of the shelf she was about to pass, determined to reload her gun with the few bullets she needed and also retrieving a stun grenade before leaving that room, closing the curious door behind her.

She walked down a corridor well-lit by neon lights that ended with a metal door protected by a security maglock set to close. She used the multi-tool she had taken from Artair's car, stowing it in her suit even though it was now useless — Damian had always recommended her not to leave any traces in the enemy camp.

She continued down another hallway, her weapon pointed at the sliding doors of an elevator at the end of it, the impersonal and aesthetically antiseptic environment bringing back unpleasant thoughts that had their origin in her years at Horus Field.

She stayed only a moment to think about what she had to do, recalling with ease all those useful details she had learned during the car ride. As she slipped into the steel and metal space, she hesitated a moment longer before contacting BlueDevil, looking at the interactive panel on the right side that showed the option to select only a specific level of the structure.

«Uncle, did the security system go off when Adam used the elevator?»

Artair replied promptly, giving her a much-needed feeling of closeness. « _Yes, apparently they have installed recognition lasers in the elevator shaft._ »

«Roger that, I'm getting ready to go down as well», she added, pressing the button as she activated the weapon's safety and stowed it in the hidden holster.

« _What? Wait, Selene!_ », tried to stop her relative with very little result, of course. « _The alarm will go off again and they'll know you're coming._ »

«Trust me», she affirmed.

She spotted the classic hatch above her head, the atavistic certainty that even Adam would think it wise to take advantage of it — and she couldn't know how correct her assumption was. With a precise movement, she latched onto a singular protrusion next to the panel, applying pressure to lift it and slide nimbly out of the small space.

She had just enough time to scan the elevator environment below her from the open passageway and a few fractions of a second to locate the laser grid.

As had happened in Hradec Králové with the turret, the girl took full advantage of all her agility, all the elasticity of her body, to move with efficient precision between the blue beams of light, finding the momentum to slide between them thanks to the wall she had come closest to, avoiding most of the lasers by a few inches.

When she landed back on the roof of the elevator, she stood there during the entire descendant, looking around for the right opening for an air vent — Adam had definitely been there, and the idea of being a little closer to him gave her renewed energy.

She walked through the narrow passageway without hesitation, crawling along with increasing speed but perfectly able to make her weight more balanced so as not to cause too much noise. Once out of the tunnel, she found herself in a small server room, with several data towers arranged throughout the space and screens embedded directly on the devices; just before passing the only door she could get through, she picked up her gun again, eventually moving into the next room, all the electromagnetic windows on and several computer stations all around.

« _Listen to me, Selene_ », Artair contacted her after definitely making sure of her location via the earpiece signal. « _You're in the same control room that Adam came into after the elevator. You'll have to be more careful from this point on, because the video surveillance systems and turrets are still active, and surely the guards will still be searching._ »

«Roger that.»

The girl spotted the door she probably had to exit from, approaching it, opening it with a touch and checking the outside environment with her weapon raised in a cautious gesture, immediately seeing on the ceiling, a few feet away, what her uncle had already anticipated.

«Which direction should I go?»

« _From your position_ », BlueDevil replied taking only a few moments to disentangle himself in turn from the image he could see from his laptop, « _you need to go past the corridor in front of you and then continue to the right. Look for signs for some stairs going downhill._ »

Circumventing the preset path of the turrets and cameras was easy, but keeping track of the patrols there was less so. The fact that Selene had avoided setting off the alarm linked to the recognition lasers gave her anyway the chance to move more calmly, moving behind a couple of pillars and running quickly to the opposite side of that large room, still keeping her gun cocked just in case.

She reached the entrance to a small corridor with two management offices to the side, a couple of guards who saw her only when she was too close and perfectly within attack range. She left the unconscious bodies there and continued until she finally saw the staircase, immediately starting to descend the first steps even though she knew she had to keep silent and move very carefully to avoid another camera set up on the landing halfway down.

Artair's voice seemed to anticipate her request.

« _Okay, now you need to continue in a northeasterly direction, past a double door that you should see directly to your right. It will lead you into a staff cafeteria. I'm guiding you down a slightly different route, but it's a different way that will lead you to the office where you'll find access for the ventilation shaft that Jensen hid in._ »

His niece nodded imperceptibly, aware that she couldn’t be seen. She felt the anxiety in her chest again, the need to regain her concentration without being overwhelmed by anything else.

«Did you try to contact him again?»

« _Yes, Selene_ », Artair answered her immediately, his tone a little more gentle and helpful. « _Constantly, but the signal from his infolink continues to reach me without fail. If he were dead..._ »

He paused to clear his throat, exhaling quickly and letting her feel all his frustration.

« _If something serious happened to him, I couldn't receive it._ »

At those words, Selene distinctly felt a small relief radiate like a sudden warmth, but the young woman didn't let her enthusiasm carry her away. When she reached the end of the staircase, she carefully avoided a couple of distant guards and passed the double doors previously named by the hacker.

She immediately recognized the cafeteria setting, finding benches set up in almost any space she could easily hide behind, passing other soldiers intent on patrolling that room. She continued to the other door, fortunately far enough away from those men, and found herself in a hallway.

«Where should I go?»

« _To the right_ », Artair replied almost immediately, taking only a quick moment to give her more detailed information. « _Advance to the end and you'll find an office on the left._ »

The girl moved quickly in the _indicated_ direction, her weapon pointed in front of her in a focused and ready gesture: being so close to Adam was making her a little hastier, but for that very reason, she wouldn't hesitate to shoot if some soldier suddenly appeared in front of her from some other room in that corridor.

Once she arrived at her destination, she opened the door after a moment of uncertainty, closing it behind her and holstering her weapon.

She immediately spotted the ventilation system door, the heart in her chest seeming to beat much faster as she noticed scattered papers and stationery tools on the floor that had probably fallen due to the ex-SWAT.

She leaped onto the filing cabinet and slipped into the passage with a mellifluous movement, returning the door to its previous position.

«I'm in the duct.»

« _Okay_ », BlueDevil said with a firm sigh of relief, certain that at least at that moment his niece was relatively safe as well. « _Jensen's about seventy feet ahead, in a maintenance area that widens out to allow for easier movement._ »

The young woman resumed crawling, advancing with ever-increasing speed, aware of sporadically causing some annoying noise that could be heard outside.

The widening Artair had anticipated appeared before her eyes as expected, but what completely caught her attention was the agent's body sitting against the wall on her left, legs stretched out in front of him and robotic hands resting on them, his head slightly bowed over the opposite shoulder.

«Adam!»

Her voice came out in a nervous, slightly higher-pitched gasp, the heart in her chest beating so loudly it rumbled in her ears. She crawled over again without even realizing it, heedless of all the micro-imperfections in the concrete that pinched her palms and knees despite her combat suit, and the amount of dust that made the air acrider than expected.

«Adam, please... _Please_.»

When she touched him, the primal impulse to make sure the man was still alive gave her the impetus to _probe_ his consciousness for a very few moments, just long enough to have _that certainty_.

She could feel his warmth like a summer wind sliding over her skin, but she had a _natural_ confirmation of that once she freed her fingers from her gloves and finally exposed her head as well, sliding the elastic fabric of her suit around her neck.

She gently tilted the man's face towards herself, noticing his eyes uncovered by the shields but closed, as if he were asleep. With her fingertips, she sensed the pulse at the side of the jugular, weak but still fairly constant.

«Adam, wake up. Wake up!», she did, holding her palms to his _beard-decorated_ cheeks.

« _Use a hypostim_ », Artair suggested directly into her ear, his voice like a godsend.

The girl immediately retrieved the item after stepping over the agent's outstretched legs with one knee, removing the green cap with her teeth to leave it momentarily between her lips, aligning the small needle on the exposed portion of the man's neck, lightly holding his head against her shoulder.

She pressed the button, waited just a handful of immensely long seconds, and when she finally, _finally_ ,heard the ex-SWAT moan in a barely audible verse, she closed the medical instrument and slipped it into a different pocket so as not to confuse it with the other still usable one, bringing her other hand to the man's farther shoulder in the hint of a weak embrace she wanted to _vent_ with all of herself.

«Adam. Adam, can you hear me?», she said, flinching a little to look at his face.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his carbon hands close into fists for a moment before relaxing on his legs covered by his cargo pants. Jensen shook his head in annoyance, muttering something unintelligible before opening his eyes. She brushed his cheeks again, staring intently at him.

«Adam, do you recognize me?»

The man tilted his face slightly, squeezing his eyelids shut and trying to lift his hands upon the young woman's arms, barely succeeding in an unsteady grip. He was noticeably confused, dizzy in a way he hadn't in a long time, and he kept feeling the same pressure in his chest that he had felt before he lost consciousness, but suddenly realized he didn't want to care.

All his _world_ was focusing on was the image of Selene in front of him, kneeling and practically straddling his legs, her body dressed in her combat suit, her fingers warm on his face and her blue gaze lit with a wet glow that he had already seen and carefully memorized, the beginnings of a cry he didn't think he could be the cause of.

The design of the seahorse made her rosy skin even paler, while the purple hair pulled back into the bun she used in those _situations_ sharpened her juvenile face, giving her less soft connotations, outlining more the lines of her cheekbones and jaw.

« _God_ , am I hallucinating...?», he muttered in a low voice, certain he should clear his throat but totally unable to do so.

BlueDevil's niece could hold back no longer, bringing her arms around his shoulders and bringing her face close to the agent's, lips close to his ear in a deep sigh of relief. She barely tightened her grip even though his combat armor pressed somewhat uncomfortably just below her collarbones.

She hadn't really realized how shocked she had felt to see him in that condition, how frightened she had felt by the sight of his motionless body, but that burning sensation of joy was displacing her even more with its incredible intensity.

It was at that moment that Adam understood that she was really there, with him, and for an instant, he felt decidedly ready to give himself up to unconsciousness again, almost willing to never wake up again, tired, fatigued, but intimately in peace.

The idea, however, of dying in the arms of the girl rekindled that inherent worry typical of him, not so much for the tender need to yield to oblivion in that state of grace, but rather for the knowledge that he couldn't and wouldn't leave her alone, not in that place, not in that dangerous situation.

«Selene...», he murmured.

He lifted his hands again and this time he brought them to her, just above her hips, finding somewhere the strength to guide her to lean in more, but inviting her right after to move back the inches necessary to look at her face.

«What the hell... What the hell are you doing here...?»

The girl faintly burst out laughing, still reeling from the fierce feeling of relief she had been swept up in. She denied imperceptibly with her head, loosening her embrace and quickly looking around for a moment before returning to observe the agent's stunned expression.

«It's Christmas, isn't there any mistletoe in here? I have a terrible urge to kiss you.»

Adam stared at her for an interminable second, all his attention suddenly focused on her lips and that last sentence that seemed to be completely waking up his foggy mind.

Was that really all it took to finally make him more alert and lucid?

_Oh, God... Do it, Selene, please... Do it._

His infolink activated with some insistence, giving him a slight feeling of discomfort vaguely spread across a small part of his face. He barely squinted, shaking his head at hearing BlueDevil's familiar tone directly in his ears.

« _Uh-uhm!_ », Artair chimed in, clearing his voice with a decidedly sonorous sound. « _Can we think about getting you out of there, first?_ »

Jensen leaned his back against the wall again, the combat armor making the position noticeably uncomfortable. «McTavish...?»

« _Yes, my friend_ », BlueDevil continued in a gentler tone. « _That's me._ »

The ex-SWAT breathed deeply a couple of times before finding the strength to utter anything else, returning to stare at the young woman in front of him.

Selene had left her hands on either side of his neck, what was left of the embrace from just before as both thumbs gently caressed him just below his ears, her blue eyes finally free of that patina of tears perpetually turned to him.

«How... how long was I in here?»

The young woman nodded a single time, intent on still watching him with that expression of irrepressible relief and joy, straightening her torso to bring some distance between them with the sole intent of giving him space, making him painfully aware of the absence of her fingers.

« _Almost an hour and a half_ », the hacker replied, perfectly audible even to his niece through the transmitter. « _You took your time, uh?_ »

Jensen lifted his head slightly in an amused nod, one corner of his lips lifted and his eyelids half-closed for a few seconds. «Ah, don't make me laugh, please... I'm in pain...»

At those words, the girl reached out her hands toward him again, resting one palm on his robotic arm and the other at shoulder height, on the top of his combat armor.

«Do you have any idea what they did to you?»

The agent barely nodded, lowering his face to his side to point to a case on his belt.

«A dart with some injectable substance. I don't think it's a narcotic, I'm afraid it's something else. My Sentinel System isn’t functioning as it should.»

Selene straightened up on her knees with heightened awareness, shifting her gaze elsewhere for a moment. «Uncle, contact Vaclav and tell him to be ready. As soon as we get out of here, we'll take Adam to the lab.»

« _Okay, I'm only interrupting communications with you for a short while and I'm going to take a closer look at the extrapolated maps earlier_ », BlueDevil informed them in a serious voice. « _Only resume movement when I tell you to, as a precaution._ »

«Roger that», the niece replied, moving her matching hand to the earpiece to set it into a momentary standby.

«Roger that», Jensen echoed her, the slightly lower tone accompanied by a weak nod of assent.

The brief silence that came between them made them too aware of each other again. They looked at one another for a few moments before she lowered her face slightly in a soft gesture, a small smile creasing her lips.

Adam exhaled deeply, scrutinizing her uncontrollably although he understood he wasn't at his full potential.

He would have liked to take advantage of that moment of _privacy_ to ask her where her desire to kiss him had gone, because, in all honesty, he felt a desperate need to do so, but he merely instead brought a carbon hand back to a belt case to pull out the last biocell in his possession.

He handed it to the girl, who looked first at the item and then at him with a questioning expression.

«I need to recharge my augmentations», he explained, giving her a demonstration of having to breathe harder, «but right now I don't have much range of motion, and...»

He paused to catch his breath, trying not to let it show.

Selene took the object between her fingers, looking at it for a moment before devoting a glance to the agent. «Where do I...? What should I do?»

Adam gave her a quick look before turning slightly on his torso to expose part of his back protected by the combat armor. «Hook the biocell on either of the two access points at the level of my shoulder blades, and then press the golden button.»

She moved just to the side to perform what was requested, concentrating on the action and trying not to think for as long as necessary about the uncertain look Jensen had given her: she didn't want to betray herself by making all too evident the bizarre sensation she felt when using that object on a person, when in fact the biocells were created mainly to recharge inanimate objects.

It gave her the sudden realization of how _strange_ it must have been first for him to come to terms with what he had become, to painstakingly accept being and feeling different since he had _seen_ himself so changed.

She felt him practically revitalize in front of her, a guttural verse of appreciation and cybernetic legs moving, touching hers.

Selene was on the verge of flinching as she stored the now useless item, but Adam returned leaning against the wall and stopped her, raising his carbon hands on her suit-protected hips and guiding her to cling to his abdomen: the embrace of a few minutes earlier was all Adam desired at that moment.

«You reckless...», the ex-SWAT murmured against her collarbone, causing her to laugh faintly in amusement. «No, Selene, I'm serious...», he tried to admonish her in a stiffer tone, still finding himself forced to breathe deeply. «Why did you come here? How did you get past the guards?»

Selene denied it vigorously, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her face once more at the side of the man's. She slid a couple of fingers over the nape of the man, trailing her fingers through his short hair in a tender caress, finally pulling away just enough to look into his face.

«Adam...», she began softly. «What else could I do? It sounds like you're scolding me.»

The ex-SWAT sighed audibly, nodding a single time. «I should actually scold your uncle», he added.

He nodded at her suit, at her left shoulder, the hole patched up with simple cotton. Although he was distracted by the unspeakable fatigue he felt and the warmth of her palm on the back of his neck, he couldn't help but notice that detail and let himself go in a burst of impulsive severity.

The young woman bit her lips, a small smile blossoming on hearing those words anyway, her fingers moving from the dark hair at the base of his neck to a lock that had slipped down his forehead, on the hexagonal symbol and the _TECH1_ inscription, moving it in a delicate gesture.

«He didn't notice, he doesn't know», she replied, referring to Artair.

Jensen swallowed with some difficulty the bitter taste he felt on his palate, tilting his face slightly to follow imperceptibly the girl's hand. He nodded a moment longer, softening his expression as much as he could.

«Then yes, I should only scold you, but I'm not really in a mood to do that.»

She watched him with an uncertain expression, frowning at the way that answer reactivated countless streams of anxiety in her soul. The idea of the agent still being so weak was able to exacerbate that unpleasant concern.

She tilted her head toward him in a clear questioning nod, returning her palms to his carbon arms.

«You'll do it later, when you're better. You are allowed to scold me for as long as you want, for whatever you want to scold me for.»

Adam just closed his eyes, smiling genuinely for the first time since waking up in that shaft.

«I must be wounded to...», he began breathing a little harder, the pressure in his chest becoming more painful, «to see you more cooperative?»

«Absolutely not», the girl replied in a voice barely cracked by that terrible idea. «I'll be more cooperative when you're better, I promise.»

She didn't know exactly what made her act so recklessly, sliding against him to embrace him again as she had done a few minutes earlier, but she bent her knees just enough to find herself with her buttocks on the man's thighs.

Adam welcomed that warmth with infinite need, letting her manage the intensity of the grip, finding it soft and tender. He felt her trembling imperceptibly, the certainty that Selene's body temperature was rising only slightly, only a choked sob that came distinctly to his ear to answer his doubt.

_Fuck, don't cry for me. Don't do this to me..._

« _Hey, you stayed in the shaft, didn't you?_ »

Artair's voice made them jolt slightly.

Selene flinched with a swift movement, moving away from the straddling position but staying to the side of the man as she tried to regain some measure of composure.

«Yes, uncle. I let Adam take a few more minutes.»

Jensen glanced at her carefully, probing her blue eyes to see if they were reddened or moist, but found no traces of her previous emotion. When he saw her intent on getting up, he tried to do the same himself, on his own legs, but the young woman accompanied him in the gesture without hesitation, supporting him when she felt him stagger slightly.

Once he was certain he could stand, he nodded to her more quickly, giving her a chance to move a few steps away without forcing her.

«Let's get out of here», he added to make it clear he was ready to take charge again.

Selene reserved one last glance for him anyway before pointing with one hand to the lower passage a few steps away from them. «I'll go ahead.»

The ex-SWAT knew it wouldn't convince her otherwise, and in all honesty, he needed a few more moments before he felt definitively able to face enemies or move silently: what he was keeping quiet about was that his energy level was decreasing somewhat slowly, but rather steadily and worryingly.

He watched her cover her hands and face with the fabric of her suit, again spotting the circular hole in her shoulder stitched up in that careless way.

The girl approached the passageway, taking one last look at the man before bending down and stepping into the shaft, moving a couple of feet and then stopping and waiting for Jensen to do the same. She resumed moving toward the hatch, opening it after checking that there was no one in the office, stepping out onto the filing cabinet and leaping down with agility, waiting for the man by the metal cabinet, but leaving him to move on his own.

She knew that showing herself overly willing to help or support him might annoy him, but beyond that motivation, she wanted to be ready in case some guard suddenly entered the room.

When they were both standing by the wooden door, she drew her gun, checking the magazine and removing the safety.

The agent swallowed with a raised eyebrow, looking at the weapon. «Where did you get it from?»

Selene reserved an astonished nod for him, her gaze blatantly exasperated.

«From a Tarvos soldier», she admitted firmly. «How do you think I got here? I had to deal with many, and improvise.»

Jensen shook his head, aware of how utterly useless his question had been, but needed to know more. «Did you kill someone?»

She denied it with a serious gesture, the black fabric making the line of her lips barely perceptible.

«No, Adam. You know I don't... I don't do it if I can avoid it.» She paused, considering whether to add the rest. «I only stunned and superficially injured. But I may have broken someone's leg, I think.»

The man let a faint smile escape, a nod of denial, and his face directed to the nearby doorway.

«Let's go.» He exhaled a couple of times to catch his breath a little more before contacting Artair. «Okay, McTavish. We're ready. Give us some good news.»

BlueDevil's voice was again audible to both of them, serious and incredibly professional. « _I've found a possible way out in the upper level than the one you are now, on the elevator floor, basically, but it's not exactly... Conventional._ »

«What is it about?», the niece asked.

« _Simply put? A big conduit that ends directly abutting the riverbed on the north side of the island._ »

A brief pause hinted at something more complex than expected, as if having to escape like that wasn't dangerous enough.

« _I will need to open the security hatch that closes the passage via a computer station, you will find it in the same room, but... The shaft will be full of water, and you will literally be dragged away by the stream until you are in the Vltava._ »

Artair sighed deeply, letting it be known how unenthusiastic he was about that plan.

« _Selene will have to remove her earpiece, because contact with water could cause the device to discharge or damage, and leaving it in her ear is not a good idea. That means the only way I'll be able to find you afterward will be via Adam's infolink GPL signal._ »

She sighed with a half-laugh, extending her left hand toward the handle of the nearby door. «Bathing in a freezing river on Christmas night: I actually miss testing whether I might catch pneumonia in anticipation of New Year's Eve.»

The agent stared at her with a gloomy expression, shaking his head and preparing to exit the relatively safe environment by activating his dermal grafts. Being suddenly certain of how he felt a little calmer thanks to the young woman's presence gave him a lot to think about — when would be an appropriate time to do so calmly.

« _I'm sending the coordinates for that room to Jensen's radar. Over and out_ », BlueDevil added without responding to his niece's comment.

The man and the girl looked at each other: although the eyes covered by the shields made the non-verbal communication not very precise, Selene could now recognize the way he was observing her.

They exchanged a nod and moved down the corridor in symbiosis, Selene with her gun pointed in front of her while Adam focused his shaky attention on the path to follow and the possible presence of some enemies. They walked briskly, ignoring the doors to the side, turning a corner to continue in the right direction.

Despite the sense of numbness in his mind, Jensen promptly nodded to an open room to the left, the neon lights providentially turned off; they both entered it before being seen by a two-man patrol and remained hunched over and silent until the agent, with a shake of his head, suggested that they could return to where they were before.

He knew there was a high probability that he wouldn't be able to activate most of his grafts, especially the more energy-intensive ones, from the cloaking system to the TITAN. _Hell_ , he wasn't even sure if the Icarus Landing would do the trick if needed.

He tried not to think about it too much, keeping an eye on the radar system and letting Selene move a few steps ahead of him.

The man signaled the presence of several guards beyond a double door, and the girl explained that she had passed through that same room earlier, a medium-sized cafeteria.

«How many are there?», she asked quietly, giving him a look.

He tried to use the smart vision, barely succeeding for three seconds before he had to turn it off, shaking his head in a nod and bringing a hand to his forehead, seeking support on the wall to the side.

The young woman moved the palm with which she held the gun, bringing the other one down on the agent's belly and moving closer to support him with her own body: his weight was easy enough to handle, but seeing him so weak hurt more than she expected.

«Shit, Adam. This isn't good», she murmured against his neck, feeling him gasp for breath. «Stay here, I'm going to clear the path.»

«No...», he replied, grabbing her weakly on the waist. «I'm not letting you go alone...»

Selene lifted her free fingers over his goatee, forcing him to look into her blue eyes. «Adam, I can't keep my eye on you and deal with the soldiers. Please, I'd rather know you're here and not with me in there.»

Jensen swallowed to try and find more words to say, shaking his head in a nod of dissent, leaning his nape against the wall and still breathing deeply: he could barely feel the pressure of the girl's physique against his own, he couldn't stop thinking about how dazed he felt and how much his abdomen was starting to hurt again.

He finally nodded, bringing his carbon arms back along his sides.

Artair's niece watched him again, her blue eyes soothed, lowering her face shortly after to the weapon held firmly by her. «Can you take this for a moment? I need to do something...»

Adam nodded, accepting the ZENITH CA-40 in his left hand, and she quickly inhaled in response just before turning away from him and toward the door. It took him only a moment to realize what she was doing, watching her from beyond the shields, worried.

«Selene... The gun...», he murmured, his tone uncertain.

«You need it more than I do», she justified herself, her blue eyes smiling at him with serenity. «Besides, I got this», she concluded with ill-concealed amusement as she pulled out the stun grenade.

She knew that leaving the firearm with him was the only way to allow Jensen to defend himself, should it be necessary.

«I'll be right back», she finally concluded.

«No, wait...», the agent rebelled, to no avail.

The girl disappeared beyond the doorway after a quick moment of hesitation, taking just a few seconds to peer into the room from the newly opened door.

The ex-SWAT stood there against the wall for a strangely short and silent time, certain that his mind wasn't at all focused, because as much as the HUD still gave him accurate information about the few minutes that had passed before he saw Selene protruding from the half-open door, it had seemed like an eternity to him.

After receiving a nod to indicate that he could reach her, he approached her with a measured step, intending to return the weapon, but when she observed him raise his hand holding the ZENITH, this time in his right palm, the young woman simply crossed her arms over her chest, a nod of denial accompanying her refusal to yield.

«For once, Adam, let's do it my way. You keep it», she exclaimed, her gaze expressive enough without the need to uncover her face.

Jensen watched her, a shuddering sigh breaking the line of his lips. He could see, when he was closer to the clear opening, three guards passed out on the floor between a couple of benches in that cafeteria.

Recognizing the ease with which she had stunned those men gave him the impetus to nod in response, establishing, despite a legitimate fear, that he was placing his trust in her totally and definitively in that context as well: something unfamiliar but equally powerful told him that he could abandon his last grievances and embrace the need to believe in Selene.

«Okay», he answered her.

The young woman nodded quickly, taking one last look at him before moving further away from the access, keeping one arm raised to hold the door anyway and let the man pass right through. They moved together towards the doorway that led directly to the large space that overlooked the stairs, in this case upwards, and a couple of corridors.

«There are guards», she informed him, remembering the route taken previously. «After the stairs, which direction should we go?»

Adam focused on the radar signal, taking a few seconds longer than expected, swallowing a couple of times to quell nausea that threatened to lap at his stomach.

«Once on the upper level», he began, «we'll be on a short corridor with two offices, one on each side. We have to pass it and reach the large central space on the level above us. Once there, we have to go to the right, but...»

Jensen paused for a moment, imperceptibly denying it with his head. Selene watched him carefully, and he could be absolutely sure that she was able to understand that there was more to his uncertainty than that.

«That central space is full of soldiers, and there are several turrets in search mode», she confirmed with a weak nod.

«As well as the soldiers who are patrolling the area directly outside this room, before the stairs», he added.

The girl turned her head slightly in the direction of the nearby door, a quick breath straight through her nose indicating how focused she was on _pondering_ an action plan functional enough for both of them.

«I could clear the passageway in the hall outside, and then try to sabotage the turrets upstairs with my... Well... Powers.»

Adam visibly denied it. Though incredibly tired and fatigued, the only thing that could keep him going was thinking about how to get Selene through all those enemies without putting her in danger — no more than she already was because of him.

Even though he had let her face the three unconscious soldiers in that same cafeteria, _aided_ by a stun grenade, he couldn’t further silence the need to protect her. If it served to grant her a safe escape route, using his augmentations even at the risk of irreparably damaging some mechanical part of him seemed like the only viable idea.

Activating the glass-shield required an immense amount of energy, and paying the price was, as expected, his artificial heart: the pain in his chest was so high that he could do nothing but remain motionless for several seconds, grateful however that the girl couldn't see the features of his face contract from that obvious grimace.

«The stairs», he resumed in a forcibly controlled voice, «are almost in front of us, just twenty feet away. You'll have to move with me.»

Selene nodded to him after an interminable moment of silence — though she barely recognized the lines of his face.

She wasn't at all sure how long Adam could hold up with that active graft, but there was no point in trying to thwart him. As much as she knew she had to help him, attempting to further control his intentions would simply risk putting them in danger.

He had been willing to listen to her and trust in her abilities. Though he was hurt and in pain, she needed to do the same to cooperate as best they could.

«We'll be able to avoid the soldiers if we move carefully», the young woman confirmed with a quick nod.

When they opened only one side of the double door, they waited for a few seconds, just long enough to be sure that the five soldiers patrolling that room were far enough away.

It was Jensen who took her by the hand and led her past the cafeteria, inviting her to walk by his side, almost like an uncoordinated shadow. In that case, what he planned to do was to hide her thanks to his own proximity from the distant and distracted gazes of their enemies, he would never be able to _extend_ the effect of the active graft up to her.

Leaning forward made no sense, they had to move quickly to the path ahead, trying to minimize the noise of their footsteps — while the ex-SWAT similarly tried to keep his gasping breath silent.

The entrance to the stairs promptly _hid_ them, as Adam couldn't keep his cloaking system on for a second longer. He had to lean against the wall with his back, the gun in his right hand, and Selene promptly supporting him, holding him just below the reinforced section of his combat armor.

The man breathed deeply for a few seconds, barely tilting his face forward, his head seeming to weigh a ton. He couldn't tell in what absurd way Selene seemed to further understand his current discomfort, but she bent her head enough to let Jensen's forehead press against hers.

Though entirely covered by the fabric of the tactical suit, he seemed to feel her warmth and breath directly against his face.

«I'm here, I'm here with you. I won't let you fall...», she murmured — in both of their minds the memory of when it had been the agent who had uttered almost the same words at a very similar moment.

The ex-SWAT made himself take those few seconds of _rest_ before nodding weakly at her.

They resumed climbing the steps with careful walking, slipping under the surveillance camera positioned halfway up in the right amount of time, and then continued to the short corridor, passing the two offices on either side. They found the still unconscious bodies of the two soldiers Selene had knocked out a good half an hour before, ignoring them without paying any attention.

Once they were in the proximity of the large hall guarded by Tarvos men and turrets ready to fire, they took just a few more moments before acting.

Jensen breathed deeply several times before reactivating the glass-shield, a quick check to his energy converter to try to predict how long he would be able to take advantage of his augmentation.

His optics in his left orbit instantly deactivated along with the HUD interface, making him totally blind in that eye and unable to retrieve all of the overlay information he now routinely assimilated when the program was running.

He didn't know how he managed not to utter even the slightest verse about what was happening to him, his unshakable willpower screaming at him to silence as much as possible everything terrifying and discouraging he was feeling at that moment — simply because he didn't want to give Selene a reason to feel scared, a reason to make her feel guilty, a reason to make her act rashly.

He knew that the girl would have preferred to throw herself across the opening to try to destroy enemies and turrets just to get him out of there on his own two feet, without risking damage to the mechanical parts that made him up.

In order to provide the young woman with a minimum of cover thanks to the cloaking system, it was appropriate to stay to her left in that case; Jensen had to change the hand with which he held the gun and had no idea how he managed to perform that action without dropping the weapon, and he had no idea how Selene hadn't noticed how much he was forced to tilt his face to enclose both arms in his narrow visual field — but it undoubtedly made sense, since she couldn't observe him in detail thanks to the active graft.

He was losing far more lucidity than was permissible, and it was just as treacherous a risk as being wounded in an _enemy camp_.

The corridor on which they had to continue was to the right completely, while most of the soldiers and turrets were located more centrally in that wide room.

As they began to move again, Adam realized that being blind in one eye and not having the information from the HUD were just two of the many problems that had arisen with the activation of the cloaking system. _Something_ had drastically affected his ability to balance, and his cybernetic legs, though solid and sturdy, felt like they were made of butter.

He had no control over the rapid shifting of his feet and literally tripped over his own boots a few steps from the wall that opened onto the small side corridor, as he felt Selene's hand slip away from his, just as the ZENITH slipped instead from his left hand, ending up on the ground several feet away.

An idiot, that's what he was. An absolute idiot.

The glass-shield deactivated at that instant, leaving her and him totally exposed, and it was at that point that someone spotted them, along with a couple of turrets that immediately turned in their direction.

«Hey, you! Stop!»

His left eye and HUD came back on in a matter of seconds, at the exact moment Selene reached out and grabbed his right arm, pulling him to his feet without hesitation as a barrage of gunfire enveloped them in a deafening roar. Yet none of the bullets hit them, and Adam had the absolute certainty that it was the young woman who was providing them with that invisible cover.

When he was able to move one step behind the other with enough precision again, he let Selene grip his right palm tighter and tug at him just a moment before giving him a worried look.

«Run.»

They slipped into the hallway in an instant, leaving an inferno of gunfire behind them.

Jensen managed to stay enough to her side, trying to keep his concentration to move his artificial legs without risking falling again and dragging her along, since Selene seemed to have no intention of loosening her grip even for a second. He knew he had to give her directions where to go next, and although it cost him a huge effort, he didn't miss once — he _couldn't_ miss, not at that moment.

They wandered around a few more corners, passed another small conference room, continued down a hallway again, and turned over a wall too fast before they could stop, both ending up on the visual of an SB-71 bot.

The security system activated with mechanical hiss and proven, precise movements, firing a continuous barrage of bullets at them.

Jensen pulled the young woman's body back, placing himself in front of her and bringing her back a few feet beyond the wall they had just passed, not before he felt a couple of shots go into his back, making him grunt in pain.

They both fell to the floor, safe from the bipedal security system, albeit briefly.

Selene didn't immediately understand what had happened, surprised at being pushed like that, but even more confused by the pressure of the man's body on top of her, as if the agent was again unable to get up.

«Adam...Adam!», the girl called him out, sitting up and trying to hold the agent up. «Did it hit you?»

«I'm fine...», he replied, trudging on his arms and knees to keep the weight off of her.

When she saw a trickle of blood slip from the ex-SWAT's contracted lips, her mind went blank for just an instant, but it was one of the longest seconds of her life. She sensed the bot approaching and knew the soldiers would be here any minute, but the image in front of her froze her for a time that seemed interminable.

A couple of crimson drops fell directly on the elastic fabric covering her face, at the level of her right cheek, mixing with the black of the suit, and it was at that point that she seemed to wake up, grabbing Jensen by the shoulders to guide him towards the nearest wall.

She knew they didn't have much time, and it was easy to imagine how close the Tarvos guards might now be.

She left Adam sitting against the wall, his carbon hands trying to hold her back when she was on the verge of pulling away, but she ignored the urge to look him in the face and stay close to him to sprint back to the corner, finding herself face to face with the bot, only a couple of feet away from her now.

She moved quickly toward the security system, taking it down before it could resume firing.

With fierce precision, that brutal energy typical of when she used her mental abilities, she smashed the camera on the top and curled the barrel of the built-in machine gun as if it were made of paper. She did the rest with her bare hands, twisting 180 degrees what could be identified as the _head_ of the machine and pulling it off with a satisfied scream, permanently deactivating the security system with a fury that she felt tearing at her chest — that sleeping _beast_ ready to claw its way right out from inside.

She stood up and turned around when by now Adam had passed the corner in turn, leaning just barely against the wall behind him with his left hand, the other hanging helplessly along his side.

She had the certainty that the man had seen her and, like a _déjà-vu_ of what had happened in Most, the mere idea of having made herself the protagonist of such a _spectacle_ in his eyes gave her torment again: a hidden monster in the guise of a twenty-two-year-old girl, that's what she really was.

She rushed up to him, being able to address his _alien_ gaze directly, shields retracted for who knows what reason, and still feeling overwhelmed with apprehension and anxiety as she saw the line of blood dripping down his chin and between his beard.

She guided the right mechanical arm around her shoulders and they resumed moving together towards the only metal door a few feet away, going through it at the exact moment when guards appeared from the corridor and started shooting towards the now closed door.

That room was divided into two parts, the one they were in, equipped with lockers, shelves and a computer station consisting of small screens, while the other half was reachable by a short staircase of four steps downwards, a simple reinforced glass panel separating the two small areas.

Selene only needed her free arm to push a closet against the door to buy time, finally tightening her grip on Adam. The ex-SWAT let himself be led without really being able to do much else, weakened and fatigued: all that kept him standing was the girl and a part of himself felt deeply amazed by the strength she was still showing.

They moved toward the computer at a brisk pace, and once they were close to the workstation, Artair's niece freed her face from the elastic fabric, contacting BlueDevil through the transmitter.

«Uncle, this is it.»

« _Yes, I know. I'm already getting the reflux systems started_ », Artair replied promptly. « _Get to the tub and as soon as the water starts to drain, jump in. And, Selene, remember to turn off and remove the earpiece from your ear._ »

They both gasped when they heard a couple of hits behind the door, the closet vibrating dangerously inward into the room.

The young woman gripped Jensen better, hearing him barely puff in pain against her purple hair, his face resting against her temple. She got rid of the earpiece just after they passed the few steps, turning it off and slipping it into a suit pocket as they moved next to the tub, the weight of the man stable against her own body.

They both looked at the water-filled passage for a moment, the diameter of about ten feet narrowed just a little towards the access to the duct, barely visible for the stream that seemed really too strong.

Selene swallowed a moment, then raised her face to the agent. «Deep breath, Adam.»

Despite the fatigue that permeated every part of himself, synthetic and natural, and despite the fog that hovered in his mind, Jensen was able to recognize a hint of fear on the face of BlueDevil's niece. It wasn't the first time he'd seen such an expression on her traits, but he was still taken aback by it.

He wanted to hold her, he wanted to tell her it would be okay, but he couldn't even find the strength to stand on his own. Maybe he should have just forced her to go without him, but he was sure that Selene would rather knock him out and carry him on her back than leave him there to die. And he would have risked letting her die, too.

The banging on the door increased in intensity and the cabinet was knocked over.

They barely had time to inhale deeply before jumping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive the long wait, but editing this chapter took longer than expected. Not so much for the English version, but rather for the Italian one, because I really wasn't very motivated to correct the text properly. Maybe it's because, by posting the story in my native language, I don't have the same "results" I got with this version, so paradoxically, I'm much more motivated to work only on the English version (but I need the Italian text anyway to get a good translation, so I should really ignore this "whim" of mine), but I'm afraid the time required to update this story could be just as long.  
> But let's cut to the chase, it seems that once I indulge in a few chapters that I hope will have the connotations of a Deus Ex-style mission, I have a hard time stopping writing about it. And I continue of course with the cliffhangers.  
> Anyway, I love, LOVE, writing about Selene in Berserkr-mood, it's something that gives me extreme satisfaction. And I can assure you that there will be plenty of episodes where Selene will come dangerously close to losing her so-called light of reason. And as obvious as it may seem that Adam "should" be the one to bring her to her senses, it will instead be Artair "auntie's boy" that will bring his niece back to her senses.  
> Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Artair's character? To me, he's perfect in every way, a little clumsy, a little nerdy, a great cook, not afraid to talk to Adam in any way, and able to set his niece straight.  
> Handsome, he... <3  
> Much LOOOVE to Artair, guys, I'm counting on it. Especially since I've finally given him a face to imagine him with for real, using actor Antony Starr as a reference. On the [Deus Ex War Paint blog](https://deusexwarpaint.tumblr.com/post/639969092319821824/artair-mctavish-was-a-good-looking-man-in-his), you can find a couple of pictures where I tried to change his hair color and eye color to match BlueDevil's, and I can say I'm quite satisfied with the result.  
> See you next chapter, and thank you so much for your amazing support.


End file.
